This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies. The popular British duo Everything But The Girl

Has Released Their First New Album In 24 Years. Today we feature our interview with Tracy Thorn,

who is one half of the duo with her husband Ben Wat. They formed their act in the 1980s when they

were dating and became pop stars in the 90s, especially in Britain, for their smart,

slinky dance pop. Before we listen to Terry's 2018 interview with Tracy Thorn,

let's go to our critic Ken Tucker for a review of their new album, Fuse. He says the duo's return

puts them back in the center of current music making.

The low smoky voice of Tracy Thorn is the signature sound of everything but the girl. With the duo's

other half, Ben Wat producing the beats. Describing their roles that way diminishes some aspects of

collaboration of course, but it's a useful shorthand for the way a listener experiences any new

everything but the girl song. Thorn's voice draws you in and Wat's a rounder with an atmosphere

that works as either an enhancement or a dramatic contrast to what Thorn is singing about.

Take for example nothing left to lose, whose jittery beat and swooping keyboards get your head

bobbing only to be brought up short by Thorn's declaration of pain of needing a thicker skin

to endure the agony of a romance that's become one sided.

Here before tell me what to do, there's nothing works without you.

This collection, Fuse, eventually reveals itself as an album length plea for compassion and

connection. Sometimes it's about one person hoping to break through another person's defenses to

achieve closeness and sometimes it addresses broader symptoms of modern alienation. On the song

called When You Mess Up, Thorn urges the person she's talking to to forgive minor sins and not

blow them up into a relationship or career ending dramas, which is to say we all mess up.

And again, oh but it's hard to explain. Don't be so hot on yourself. Don't think you're

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