Everything But The Girl039s ninth studio album Temperamental was first released in September 1999. It debuted at 16 on the UK Album Chart and peaked at 3 in Australia and 65 on the US Billboard 200, and went on to sell over 500,000 copies worldwide. Often seen as a companion piece to its millionselling predecessor Walking Wounded, it once again skilfully merged worlds contemporary electronic dance music and smart singersongwriting, but was not without its production difficulties.Working from the same template as before, the album was largely recorded at home by Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn in the summer of 1998 in familiar surroundings synths, samplers, simple computer software, a microphone with two tracks ending up as production collaborations Blame, made with drum 039n039 bass DJproducer Jamie Spratling J Majik at his home studio in Hertfordshire and The Future of the Future, which began life as an instrumental by Washington DC deep house producers, Deep Dish before Ben wrote a melody and lyrics for Tracey to sing.Yet if the propulsive beats are undercut by a melancholy edge to the lyrics and sounds, it perhaps reflects the circumstances behind the album039s evolution.34It was on reflection, a difficult album to make,34 says Watt. 34With the recent birth of our twin girls in 1998, I found myself constructing much of the album in isolation, with Tracey inevitably more preoccupied with family life. It was much less collaborative than it should have been. I guess we were just moving in different mental spaces a lot of the time.34In spite of the strained recording process and a lukewarm reaction from a rock press tiring of electronica, the album was acclaimed in many quarters on its release. 34Triumphant afterhours club pop34 said Spin Magazine in an effusive fullpage 910 lead review. 34Entirely natural, wholly wonderful34 said the Sunday Times. 34The definitive dance album steeped in all things pop. Sublime and essential34 commented Billboard, while Time Out offered, 34If EBTG discovered nightlife late, it is one of their greatest strengths. Wideeyed and wondrous.34Offering a longer view in 2019 in a lengthy 20th year anniversary retrospective feature in The Quietus Michael White said, 34After 20 years it has aged very well ... I039ve explored the length and breadth of dance music as if it were my job, and I can039t point to another album of its kind that so effectively bridges the divide between the deeply communal sound of the dance floor and the deeply private vocabulary of a mind in trouble.34The album has been mastered and cut at halfspeed by longtime Everything But The Girl mastering engineer, Miles Showell, now at Abbey Road Studios, who is one of only a handful of engineers specializing in halfspeed mastering that uses new techniques to more faithfully reproduce the sound of original master tapes.
