Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 09/28/1999
Everything but the Girl's resurrection as a sophisticated
electronica outfit may have been unpredictable, but it certainly revitalized the duo's music. Prior to 1996's
Walking Wounded,
Ben Watt and
Tracey Thorn had taken their charming, jazzy acoustic
pop as far as it could go. Adding
electronica, primarily
drum'n'bass and
trip-hop, to the equation broke their potential wide open, as the captivating, seductive
Walking Wounded proved. It was such a drastic, fulfilling departure that it did raise the question of where they go from here; its 1999 sequel,
Temperamental, answers that by offering more of the same, except just a little different.
Temperamental tempers the lightly skittering
drum'n'bass and eliminates
trip-hop, yet retains the same feel as
Walking Wounded.
House music -- everything from classic '80s
house to contemporary
house -- serves as the musical foundation, which actually opens the doors for slight jazzy inflections, along with long, hypnotizing instrumental passages (most notably on
"Compression"). Weirdly, it also serves as a good setting for a batch of songs that are essentially in the
singer/songwriter vein. In fact, there aren't as many clear
pop hooks here as there were on
Walking.
"Five Fathoms," "Tempermental," and a couple of other tracks work as singles, but the album is a more of a meditative, reflective piece, like a
singer/songwriter album -- except it's dressed in sultry, evocative
electronic dance music. That means, of course, that
Temperamental isn't all that different than its predecessor, but its blend of
house,
electronica,
pop,
jazz, and
folk is equally satisfying as that landmark album.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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