Happy 30th Anniversary to Everything But The Girl’s fifth studio album The Language of Life, originally released February 5, 1990.
If you were in your late teens or early twenties in the mid ‘90s, then Everything But The Girl was, well, just that: everything. “Missing” from their eighth studio album Amplified Heart captured the world’s attention and we were all listening. Perhaps it was Todd Terry’s remix of the song that not only gave it an uptempo house music makeover, but also made it the song of the moment that no dance floor could possibly live without. Either way, remix or not, the song resonated and Everything But The Girl had finally found mainstream success, something that had long eluded them.
Just four short years prior to the duo’s global domination and they had released 1990’s The Language Of Life, music set to a kind of adult contemporary backdrop with heavy doses of jazz coupled with soul and pop. I remember listening to this album at the time, especially given my heavy fascination with jazz and to be honest, I would have never made the connection with this album to the band’s later offerings. That’s not a negative and as an adult listener you can connect the dots between past and present, but in 2020 I still find this particular album very different from their vast catalogue of work. Again, most definitely not a negative.
The Language Of Life is most striking in the fact that the band’s lead singer Tracey Thorn, for whatever reason, had little writing input, co-writing only three of the album’s ten tracks. This may have been deliberate or unfortunate, but either way, the album seems to be missing more of Thorn’s unique lyrical input, which is a staple component of their other offerings. In saying that, “Meet Me In The Morning” and the album’s namesake “The Language Of Life,” both co-written by Thorn and Ben Watt, are incredibly beautiful pieces that are testaments to the duo’s shared songwriting prowess.
The Language Of Life was billed as “adult contemporary” and whilst there is no denying that the album could easily be heard on some late night radio station laying claim to only playing “easy listening hits of the ‘80s and ‘90s,” it would be criminal to ignore its very obvious jazz and soul indebted influences. The most obvious of these would be the band’s decision to recruit the legendary jazz & bossa nova master Stan Getz and producing powerhouse Tommy LiPuma.
Given the talent that was called on to help create this album, there is no doubt that The Language Of Life managed to finally deliver on the ever elusive unspoken promise of jazz, something that EBTG’s first three albums alluded to, but never quite managed to succeed in creating. The effortlessness and breeziness of this album is not to be mistaken with laziness, the opposite in fact. Thorn and Watt managed to create a polished album that not only showcased the former’s vocals in one of their finest moments, but gave way to the duo being recognized as more than just a pop act, something that divided some and united others.
With this “new” sound, the duo were able to take risks like on the alluringly catchy “Get Back Together” where Thorn and Watt met vocally and toyed with the idea of an “almost there” scat. The album’s lead single and opening track “Driving” takes the listener on a journey as Thorn tries to awaken her love interest, asking him to see her as the only home he needs. Then in “Imagining America,” the story is told of a couple immigrating to America in the early 1900s, but an impossible distraction is the song’s incredible likeness in sound to fellow Brit band Simply Red.
Thorn and Watt knew what they were doing when creating this album. They called on instrumentalist royalty (including saxophonists Michael Brecker and Kirk Whalum) and with LiPuma helming the production, The Language Of Life was not just a move into something new for the band, but also became one of their biggest selling albums. Even the cover of Womack & Womack’s “Take Me” manages to bring a new perspective to music that many would be afraid to touch.
A beautiful album for those lazy Sundays relaxing to music that remains as effortless as it is timeless.
LISTEN: