Everything But the Girl announce 'Fuse,' their first album in 24 years, share "Nothing Left to Lose"

Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn have been a couple since 1981, which was just shortly before they formed Everything But the Girl. They’ve been together ever since, but EBTG has been on hiatus since 2000, not long after they released 1999’s Temperamental. After 24 years, they’re back, and will release new album Fuse on April 21 via Watt’s Buzzin’ Fly label and Virgin Records. (Preorder on vinyl.) First single “Nothing Left to Lose” is out now.

“After so much time apart professionally, there was both a friction and a natural spark in the studio when we began,” says Tracey. “However much we underplayed it at the start, it was like a fuse had been lit. And it ended in a kind of coalescence, an emotional fusion. It felt very real and alive.”

Watt adds, “It was exciting. A natural dynamism developed. We spoke in shorthand, and little looks, and co-wrote instinctively. It became more than the sum of our two selves. It just became Everything But The Girl on its own.”

Songs began as improvised piano pieces Watt recorded on his phone that were later reworked into actual songs. “Ironically the finished sound of the new album was the last thing on our mind when we started in March 2021,” says Thorn. “Of course, we were aware of the pressures of such a long-awaited comeback, so we tried to begin instead in a spirit of open-minded playfulness, uncertain of the direction, receptive to invention.”

The first single is “Nothing Left to Lose,” which is also Fuse‘s opening track. Reminiscent of their last two albums, Walking Wounded and Tempermental, with Thorn’s distinctive, smokey vocals over a spare beat and atmospheric backing, the song feels very modern as well. You can listen to “Nothing Left to Lose” and check out Fuse‘s artwork and tracklist below.

Fuse Tracklist:
Nothing Left To Lose
Run a Red Light
Caution to the Wind
When You Mess Up
Time and Time Again
No One Knows We’re Dancing
Lost
Forever
Interior Space
Karaoke