Love Not Money - Everything But The Girl > Reviews > Love Not Money - Everything But The Girl

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Fantastic Lyrics, Good Songs
Disadvantages:	Some Lyrics Are Quite Depressing

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

1994 had seen the release of Everything But The Girl's debut Album Eden, which had received fantastic feedback and been voted NME's Album if that year.

Eden had sold over 350,000 copies in the UK and over 500,000 copies worldwide so the pressure was on to follow up this debut with something equally as good, if not better.

Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, who are the duo that comprises the band had been performing many of their new songs live for the past couple of years and it was somewhat surprising that many of these catchy songs had not made it onto their first Album.

With an abundance of material the band wasted no time in putting out their second Album Love Not Money and this was in the shops just 10 months after their debut release.

There had been two four track EP singles released in-between the first two Albums called Mine and Native Land, both of which had reached the lower part of the top 40 and although none of these tracks appear on Love Not Money the style of these is much more in line with what we find on Love Not Money.

The Album features 10 tracks as below

When All's Well
Ugly Little Dreams
Shoot Me Down
Are You Trying To Be Funny?
Sean
Ballad Of The Times
Anytown
This Love (Not For Sale)
Trouble And Strife
Angel

The Album opens with When All's Well which had been released as a single a couple of weeks before the Album and from the second that it begins it is obvious that Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt have decided to go in a completely different direction on this Album than with Eden.

Eden was very heavily influenced by Jazz and Soul with Tracey's soft laid back lyrics telling us of hope and despair and failed relationships. It would have been easy and safe to put out a collection of new tracks that were similar to those on Eden but instead we find something much more lively and dare I say it happier.

When All's Well opens with a full brass band. There is a full Orchestra here not just the Saxophone and Acoustic Guitar that accompanies Tracey's voice on the tracks from Eden, and the vocals are loud and clear. This is a song that is sung right from the bottom of the stomach and in many ways it almost like a celebration.

Tracey and Ben were now a couple, they had found a loving friendship in each other and this was being expressed in the new material that they were recording. Gone are the bitterweet lyrics of earlier songs, instead Tracey sings "When all's well my love is like cathedral bells"

Ugly Little Dreams is a song that Tracey wrote about Frances Farmer. She was an actress who was destined to become the next Marilyn Monroe, but she couldn't handle the pressure and ended up having a complete breakdown, eventually dying in an institution. Her battles with Alcohol and Drug Abuse were largely kept out of the press and much of her private life was covered up until after her death in 1970.
The song opens with the lines: "Frances keep your mouth shut dear, We don't want the neighbours round, With their ugly little schemes, that make the pretty world go round."
Later she sings "It's a battlefield Frances, You fight or concede, Victory to the enemy Who call your strength insanity, What chance for such girls, How can we compete? In a world that likes its women stupid and sweet."
This is a song that is very pro women in an era when feminism had lost many of its earlier appeals. It is a song about how it is still hard for a women to make a career for herself, especially if she is attractive, because somehow an attractive women should not be intelligent. "I bet you rue the day that the angels gave you your share of bright cornflower blue eyes, and golden hair, there's a lot of ugly little dreams for pretty girls to buy, It's enough to make you mad but it's safer just to break down and cry."

Are you trying to be funny? is a song about divorce but it is about coming through it and surviving. Its lyrics are clever with more than a sense of irony. It opens with the lines "Let him spend all his money on you, ease the guilt of the things he won't do, for he believes there's no such thing as greed, a yearly payment is all that you need."
This track is also where the title of the Album comes from as there is a line in the chorus which says "What do you mean you need Love Not Money? Are you trying to be funny?"

Sean and The Ballad of the times are two tracks that see Everything But The Girl getting Political. Sean is a song about the troubles in Northern Ireland. It is a slow ballad and can be quite a sad song if you listen to it a certain mood.

The Ballad of the Times is probably my favourite track on the Album. It is very catchy and upbeat, but again the lyrics are quite deep and thought provoking. It is a song about growing up in poverty during the Second World War. It opens with the lines "Narrow streets breed narrow minds that care for Kin but not for kind."
It is a song about having no money but accepting that this is the way it should be and making the most of it. It is a song about having no ambitions "You'll never find room to find your feet, to walk out of these avenues, Your pockets are lined with promises but when did a promise ever pay for shoes?"
It is also a song about how proud a father is to send his son off to War, and the irony of this. "Count the Coal Trucks on the line and raise your glasses one more time, Billy has gone off to War, God knows what he's fighting for, but Wartime will make him a man, work that one out if you can."

Anytown is another story about growing up without money. This time the lyrics are penned by Ben, who grew up in Oldham, rather than Tracey who is responsible for the rest of the lyrics on the Album. "Over Dale and over Hills, I'll take you to the Cotton Mills, and to the Ginnels where we played, and where our friendships all were made."
It is a song about having little but still being happy and about looking back on this after fame and fortune has been found. "Rags to riches, that's a lie, for some things money just can't buy, thicker than water blood may be, but comfort still brings misery."

This Love (Not For Sale) is about prostitution and a woman faced with selling the only thing left so that she can feed her kids. She has come from the country to the city to find work but there is none. "Will heaven echo back my plea, or will it cast a curse on me, from the country farms to the city lights, everyone cracks if the price is right."

The Album closes with Angel, which was released as the second single from the Album. The cover of this single features a child begging on the streets with tears rolling down her face. The song opens with the lines "Show me something worse, than a child outside a church, begging with a cardboard box, in a heartless town that hurts and mocks."

Overall I think that this is a fantastic Album and the lyrics are incredibly thought provoking and at times quite sad. Yet the feel of the songs are surprisingly upbeat and jolly, so you could quite easily miss the point of some of the songs if you don't listen to the lyrics.

I bought this Album on vinyl when it was first released in 1995 and upgraded it to a CD a few years later. The cover of the CD is a black and white photograph of children playing on a narrow street with terraced houses in the background with black smoke churning out of their chimneys, and although the children look happy they have no shoes on their feet.

Thank you for reading.