About this item

First released in 1984, 'Eden' is the acclaimed debut album from Everything But The Girl - the best-selling UK duo formed in 1982 by singer-writer musicians Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt - and arrives in a new 26-track deluxe CD reissue edition featuring additional B-sides and extra tracks.

Recorded and mixed over nine days in September 1983 and produced by Robin Millar, 'Eden' spawned the UK Top 40 hit 'Each And Every One' and went on to sell over half a million copies worldwide.

Thorn and Watt met at Hull University in 1981 and over the next two years became successful solo artists and songwriters on London indie Cherry Red. 'Eden' signalled a major label move to Blanco Y Negro/ Warner and is the merging of the pair's respective worlds. Thorn's unshowy soulful voice and Watt's jazz-folk guitar and latinflavoured arrangements take centre stage. The sound is sharpened by lyrics that offer both acerbic takedowns and a bittersweet disarming intimacy.

The album features a handpicked band including Simon Booth (Weekend, Working Week) on additional guitar, Colombian double- bassist Chucho Merchan, Brazilian percussionist Bosco D'Oliveira, veteran alto saxophonist Peter King, and Charles Hayward from experimental London futurists, This Heat, on drums.

Some B-sides from the time were recorded shortly after the 'Eden' sessions. Later tracks from the same year point towards the tighter pop sound the pair were to develop both on the road and on the follow-up album. June Miles-Kingston (Modettes, Fun Boy Three) joins on drums, Phil Moxham (Young Marble Giants) on electric bass, and Johnny Marr guests on harmonica on Native Land.

The running order follows the template of the last deluxe edition in 2012, but - with the master tape only recently unearthed - adds the duo's 1983 version of Paul Weller's 'English Rose', originally recorded for the NME's Racket Packet cassette.

Mastered at Abbey Road Studios by Miles Showell, the album features the original artwork by Jane Fox in a new layout by John Gilsenan at IWant Design, with full lyrics, credits and photos from the period.

TRACK LISTING

1. Each And Every One
2. Bittersweet
3. Tender Blue
4. Another Bridge
5. The Spice Of Life
6. The Dustbowl
7. Crabwalk
8. Even So
9. Frost And Fire
10. Fascination
11. I Must Confess
12. Soft Touch 
13. English Rose
14. Laugh You Out Of The House
15. Never Could Have Been Worse
16. Mine
17. Gun Cupboard Love
18. Easy As Sin
19. Native Land
20. Riverbed Dry
21. Don’t You Go
22. Each And Every One (Home Demo 1983)
23. Bittersweet (Home Demo 1983)
24. Even So (Home Demo 1983)
25. Frost And Fire (Home Demo 1983)
26. Soft Touch (Home Demo 1983)