Idlewild (Everything but the Girl album)

Songs on Idlewild deal with domestic, daily and family topics, such as motherhood and child raising ("Apron Strings," "These Early Days"), growing up in the suburbs ("Oxford Street") and relationships ("I Always Was Your Girl", "Love Is Here Where I Live") or homesickness ("Lonesome for a Place I Know"). Its sounds flow between acoustic instrumentation, synths and drum machine. It was produced and recorded by the duo with little input from other collaborators. According to singer Tracey Thorn, at the time the album was finished, the record company considered it lacking of hits and doubted its quality, but it later received critical acclaim.

In her autobiography Bedsit Disco Queen Thorn recalls from the recording process:

I am writing songs, though; lyrics that are more like short stories than pop lyrics. Perhaps they ought to be short stories. They don’t really have choruses. Maybe I’m just not very good at choruses. Ben is experimenting with synths and keyboards. He buys a drum machine and starts getting into the finer details of how to programme it. I don’t know how to operate the drum machine, or how to turn the synths on, and I’m not bothered enough to learn. There is some disagreement about what our next record should sound like. We keep changing our minds. I still write all my songs on a guitar or at the piano, and so when I play them they sound a bit like my songs have always sounded. But Ben is writing songs with a more modern sound, using his new synths and the drum machine, and I like these too. We veer between these two possible extremes before making a record, Idlewild, which incorporates a bit of both. Maybe it’s another ‘bizarre hybrid’.

Critical and commercial reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Mojo
NME	8/10
Pitchfork	6.4/10
Q
Record Mirror	4/5
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Smash Hits	7+1⁄2/10
Spin Alternative Record Guide	8/10
Uncut	6/10

Idlewild was met with critical acclaim and remains a fan-favourite. It was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Three songs were released as singles but failed to make a big impact. "These Early Days" peaked at No. 75 and "I Always Was Your Girl" at No. 87 in the UK, while "Love Is Here Where I Live" didn't chart. In between these releases, EBTG recorded a cover of "I Don't Want to Talk About It" which became their biggest success to that point (UK No. 3) and was later included on Idlewild's re-releases.

The album reached No. 13 in the UK and No. 38 in New Zealand and received a Gold certification for sales in excess of 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom.

Track listing

*Idlewild* (1988 original release)
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Love Is Here Where I Live"	Tracey Thorn Ben Watt	3:55
2.	"These Early Days"	Thorn	3:50
3.	"I Always Was Your Girl"	Thorn Watt	4:00
4.	"Oxford Street"	Thorn	3:21
5.	"The Night I Heard Caruso Sing"	Watt	2:55
6.	"Goodbye Sunday"	Thorn Watt	4:00
7.	"Shadow on a Harvest Moon"	Thorn	3:38
8.	"Blue Moon Rose"	Thorn Watt	3:37
9.	"Tears All Over Town"	Watt	4:35
10.	"Lonesome for a Place I Know"	Thorn Watt	4:02
11.	"Apron Strings"	Thorn Watt	3:07
Total length:			41:02

*Idlewild* (1988 re-release)
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"I Don't Want to Talk About It"	Danny Whitten	4:17
2.	"Love Is Here Where I Live"	Tracey Thorn Ben Watt	3:55
3.	"These Early Days"	Thorn	3:50
4.	"I Always Was Your Girl"	Thorn Watt	4:00
5.	"Oxford Street"	Thorn	3:21
6.	"The Night I Heard Caruso Sing"	Watt	2:55
7.	"Goodbye Sunday"	Thorn Watt	4:00
8.	"Shadow on a Harvest Moon"	Thorn	3:38
9.	"Blue Moon Rose"	Thorn Watt	3:37
10.	"Tears All Over Town"	Watt	4:35
11.	"Lonesome for a Place I Know"	Thorn Watt	4:02
12.	"Apron Strings"	Thorn Watt	3:07
Total length:			45:22

*Idlewild* (2012 Edsel re-release - CD 1)
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Love Is Here Where I Live"	Thorn Watt	3:55
2.	"These Early Days"	Thorn	3:50
3.	"I Always Was Your Girl"	Thorn Watt	4:00
4.	"Oxford Street"	Thorn	3:21
5.	"The Night I Heard Caruso Sing"	Watt	2:55
6.	"Goodbye Sunday"	Thorn Watt	4:00
7.	"Shadow on a Harvest Moon"	Thorn	3:38
8.	"Blue Moon Rose"	Thorn Watt	3:37
9.	"Tears All Over Town"	Watt	4:35
10.	"Lonesome for a Place I Know"	Thorn Watt	4:02
11.	"Apron Strings"	Thorn Watt	3:07
Total length:			41:02

*Idlewild* (2012 Edsel re-release - CD 2)
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Dyed in the Grain"	Watt	5:07
2.	"No Place Like Home"	Paul Overstreet	4:26
3.	"Another Day, Another Dollar"	Thorn	3:28
4.	"Hang Out the Flags"	Thorn Watt	3:21
5.	"Home from Home"	Thorn	3:06
6.	"I Don't Want to Talk About It"	Whitten	4:17
7.	"I Don't Want to Talk About It" (instrumental)	Whitten	3:01
8.	"Living on Honeycomb"	Thorn	2:32
9.	"How About Me?"	Irving Berlin	2:46
10.	"These Early Days" (Dave Bascombe remix)	Thorn	3:28
11.	"Love Is Here Where I Live" (home demo, 1987)	Thorn Watt	3:38
12.	"I Always Was Your Girl" (home demo, 1987)	Thorn Watt	3:22
13.	"Tears All Over Town" (home demo, 1987)	Watt	3:28
14.	"Apron Strings" (home demo, 1987)	Thorn Watt	3:10
15.	"Oxford Street" (home demo, 1987)	Thorn	3:32
16.	"Lonesome for a Place I Know" (home demo, 1987)	Thorn Watt	3:00
17.	"Always Remember (These Early Days)" (home demo, 1987)	Thorn	3:23
18.	"Apron Strings" (alternative film version, 1987)	Thorn Watt	3:00
Total length:			1:02:04

Personnel

Everything but the Girl

Tracey Thorn – vocals
Ben Watt – vocals, guitar

Additional musicians

Ian Fraser – tenor saxophone
Steve Pearce – bass
Damon Butcher – piano, synthesizer
James McMillan – trumpet
Chucho Merchán – bass on "Lonesome for a Place I Know"
Peter King – alto saxophone

Technical

Jerry Boys – engineering

Additionally, Geoff Travis, Lindy Morrison and James McMillan are thanked in the liner notes.

Charts

Chart (1988)	Peak position
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)	38
UK Albums (OCC)	13

Certifications


Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)	Gold	100,000
Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

Hurley, Oliver (May 2018). "Top 15 Sophisti-Pop Albums". Classic Pop. No. 40. pp. 48–49. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
Thorn, Tracey (2013). Bedsit Disco Queen. London: Hachette. p. 291. ISBN 978-1-40551-398-2.
Ruhlmann, William. "Idlewild – Everything But the Girl". AllMusic. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
Worthy, Stephen (July 2012). "Everything but the Girl: Idlewild". Mojo. No. 224. p. 101.
Quantick, David (5 March 1988). "Everything but the Girl: Idlewild". NME. p. 30.
Harvell, Jess (9 July 2012). "Everything But the Girl: Reissues". Pitchfork. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
Rogers, Jude (July 2012). "Everything but the Girl: Eden / Love Not Money / Baby, the Stars Shine Bright / Idlewild". Q. No. 312.
Dee, Johnny (5 March 1988). "Everything but the Girl: Idlewild". Record Mirror. p. 14.
Sarig, Roni (2004). "Everything but the Girl". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 288–289. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
Shaw, William (24 February – 8 March 1988). "Everything but the Girl: Idlewild". Smash Hits. Vol. 10, no. 4. p. 55.
Crist, Renée (1995). "Everything but the Girl". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. pp. 136–137. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
Richards, Sam (July 2012). "Everything but the Girl". Uncut. No. 182. p. 98.
Thompson, Gareth (2006). "Everything but the Girl: Idlewild". In Dimery, Robert (ed.). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Universe Publishing. p. 588. ISBN 978-0-7893-1371-3.
"Everything but the Girl | full Official Chart History". Official Charts. 24 February 2022.
"Charts.nz – Everything but the Girl – Idlewild". Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
"Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
"British album certifications – Everything but the Girl – Idlewild". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 23 March 2018.

v t e Everything but the Girl
Ben Watt Tracey Thorn
Studio albums	Eden Everything but the Girl Love Not Money Baby, the Stars Shine Bright Idlewild The Language of Life Worldwide Acoustic Amplified Heart Walking Wounded Temperamental Fuse
Compilation albums	Essence & Rare 82–92 Home Movies The Best of Everything but the Girl Like the Deserts Miss the Rain Adapt or Die: Ten Years of Remixes
Singles	"Night and Day" "Each and Every One" "I Don't Want to Talk About It" "Missing" "Walking Wounded" "Wrong" "Tracey in My Room" "Corcovado"
Other songs	"I Didn't Know I Was Looking for Love"
Related articles	Discography Bedsit Disco Queen Marine Girls Patient

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