Everything But The Girl – Blue Reservoir
Blue Reservoir is the eleventh and latest studio album from Everything But The Girl – the best-selling UK duo formed in 1982 by singer-writer-musicians Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt – and will be released on Buzzin’ Fly through Virgin Music Group on February 19, 2027.
First single “Young and Dumb” and accompanying music video (treatment by Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, directed by Edward Bishop) is out now.
Inspired by the pair’s unexpected and unconventional return to live performance in 2025 – a long-running sold-out residency (with thousands each night on the wait list) at Hackney’s intimate 300-capacity MOTH Club – the album sees the duo put aside the sharply-lit electronica of 2023’s acclaimed comeback album, Fuse, and lean into some of their foundational influences and ideas.
“There was an intensity and simplicity to the MOTH shows that took us back to how we started out,” says Thorn. “Direct, rooted in guitar and voice, a few extra colors. We hadn’t been in that world for a long time and it just felt fresh and real.”
Uplifted, Watt bought a Spanish nylon-string guitar in January 2026 to write and perform on. “It is the sound of so much of the music I first connected with growing up, and I’d never actually owned one. It became quite an emotional springboard for me. I found a voice I thought I’d lost.”
The music came together in a creative burst in the first few weeks of 2026. If the results (nine written on guitar, one on piano) draw on Watt’s signature Latin-influenced lyricism, British folk-blues improvisation and song-driven storytelling, the lyrics (six by Thorn, three by Watt, one co-write) look forward and back through time, part-conversational, part-allusive, carried throughout by Thorn’s richly original autumnal voice, Watt’s soft counterpoint and the pair’s unadorned harmonies.
The album of ten original songs was recorded largely live at RAK Studios in London over ten days in July 2026. Watt’s guitars – both nylon-strung rhythm and electric lead – are augmented by long-standing collaborators Rex Horan (double bass) and Evan Jenkins (drums). The percussionist is Fabio de Oliveira (Babo Moreno), son of Brazilian percussion legend Bosco de Oliveira – a central figure on Thorn and Watt’s influential debut album, Eden in 1984. The pair’s own son, Blake Watt (Family Stereo / Bella Union), part of the MOTH club line-up, guests on two songs. Additional overdubs (harmonium, celesta, tape loop atmospheres) were recorded by Watt at the duo’s home studio in north London.
Blue Reservoir is written, arranged and produced by Everything But The Girl, and recorded and mixed by Bruno Ellingham – engineer on albums by the pair, both solo and as a duo, for over 15 years. Mastering is by Miles Showell at Abbey Road. Artwork by John Gilsenan at IWANT Design.
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