EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL 

Announce Their Highly Anticipated New Album 

‘Blue Reservoir’ 

Out 19 February 2027 

The Album’s First Single And Video 

“Young And Dumb”

Out Now – Watch Here

Live Dates Extended

Everything But The Girl – the best-selling UK duo formed in 1982 by singer-writer-musicians Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt – have announced their highly anticipated new album ‘Blue Reservoir’, out 19 February 2027 on Buzzin’ Fly, through Virgin Music Group. The album’s first single “Young and Dumb” and accompanying music video (treatment by Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, directed by Edward Bishop) is out now.

‘Blue Reservoir’ is the eleventh and latest studio album from Everything But The Girl. 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’ (5 stars, The Guardian), 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 colours. 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.

On the live front, over the next few weeks the pair extend their run of sold-out intimate MOTH Club shows (30 full houses since April 2025), with three more at the MOTH and two at Union Chapel, and in 2027 add regional shows for the first time. Billed not as Everything But The Girl but as ‘Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn’ for set list flexibility, the performances feature songs from their years both as a duo and as solo artists, plus covers and wild cards.

Blue Reservoir track list:

Forward

Scala 

Young and Dumb

Do What You Can

Christmas Gone

Courage Mon Brave 

The Round and Round 

Fork in the Road 

Good Hope 

The Great Unknown

Upcoming Tour Dates (as Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn):

2026

London – Union Chapel, Nov 29 – Sold Out

London – Union Chapel, Nov 30 – Sold Out

London – MOTH Club, Dec 13 – Sold Out

London – MOTH Club, Dec 14 – Sold Out

London – MOTH Club, Dec 15 – Sold Out

2027

London – Union Chapel, May 21 – On sale Oct 30

London – Union Chapel, May 22 – On sale Oct 30

Bristol – St George’s, May 25 – On sale Oct 30

Manchester – Albert Hall, May 26 – On sale Oct 30

About Everything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl – aka EBTG – was formed in 1982 by singer-writer-musicians Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt. Their debut single was a stark evergreen jazz-folk cover of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day” (1982). The pair were prolific on the UK indie scene in the early 80s – Thorn with her lo-fi girl group, Marine Girls (1980-1983) and an acclaimed solo album ‘A Distant Shore’ (1982); Watt with a standout debut EP ‘Summer into Winter’ (1982) featuring Robert Wyatt and an album, ‘North Marine Drive’ (1983).

Acclaimed for their tender-tough lyrics, Thorn’s unique voice and Watt’s arrangements, as Everything But The Girl they released a string of UK gold albums in the 1980s beginning with Eden in 1984 (featuring UK Top 40 hit, “Each and Every One”), and moving through folk-jazz, guitar pop, orchestral wall-of-sound and drum-machine soul. Their timeless hit cover of Danny Whitten’s “I Don’t Want To Talk About It” appeared in 1988 (#3, UK Top 40). 1990 saw their breakthrough in the US with the radio and VH-1 hit, “Driving”. In 1992 their world tour was abandoned when Ben was dramatically admitted to hospital in London with a life-threatening auto-immune disease from which he nearly died. The story is captured in his acclaimed memoir, Patient.

The pair returned with the million-selling ardent folk-soul of ‘Amplified Heart’ (1994). The album includes their biggest hit, “Missing”, after New York DJ-producer Todd Terry’s remix unexpectedly made the leap from heavy club play to global radio success in 1995 (#2, US Hot 100; # 3 UK Top 40; #1, Germany, Italy, Canada). 1994 also saw Thorn co-write and sing the title track to Massive Attack’s second album, ‘Protection’. 

‘Amplified Heart’ was followed by the sparkling ‘Walking Wounded’ (1996, #4 UK Album Chart), brimming with sounds and grooves from the mid 90s electronic scene. Spawning four UK Top 40 hits – “Walking Wounded”, “Wrong”, “Single”, “Before Today” – it became the band’s first UK platinum album and has sold over 2 million copies worldwide.

After the follow-up, ‘Temperamental’ (1999), the duo chose to pause on a high. Tracey focused on family life away from the spotlight before returning with a run of four solo albums (‘Out of the Woods’, ‘Love and Its Opposite’, ‘Tinsel and Lights’, ‘Record)’, four best-selling autobiographical books including Bedsit Disco Queen (Sunday Times Top 10), a fortnightly column for The New Statesman (2014-2025) and a movie soundtrack for Carol Morley’s The Falling. She was awarded ‘Outstanding Contribution To Music’ at the AIM Awards 2018.

Ben moved into production (Beth Orton), remixing (inc Sade, Maxwell, Meshell Ndegeocello), and DJing. He launched the seminal Sunday club night Lazy Dog, toured internationally and took on major DJ residencies in London (The End, Plastic People), New York (Cielo), Tokyo (Air) and Ibiza (We Love Space Sundays), and founded the award-winning electronic label, Buzzin’ Fly. As a writer, in 2014 his second memoir, Romany and Tom – a portrait of his parents’ marriage – was nominated for the Samuel Johnson Non-Fiction Prize. He returned to his singer-songwriter roots in 2014 with a trilogy of solo albums – ‘Hendra’ (2014, AIM Best 2nd Album Award), ‘Fever Dream’ (2016) and ‘Storm Damage’ (2020).

In November 2022 the pair unexpectedly announced they had recorded a new studio album in secret, the first for over two decades. Entitled ‘Fuse’ – and featuring the radio hit, “Nothing Left To Lose” – it was released on April 21 2023, took them to their highest ever UK chart position (#3 UK Album Chart) and won them the ‘Self-Producing Artist of the Year’ award at the MPG (Music Producers Guild) Awards 2024.