Eden... Plus

Everything But The Girl was formed in 1982 by Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt. The pair met by coincidence at Hull University in the autumn of 1981. Both had already had early acclaimed starts in their teens on the UK post-punk independent scene - Tracey with her indie minimal girl group, the Marine Girls (1980- 1983, later name-checked as one of Kurt Cobain's favourite bands); Ben with more experimental solo folk-jazz recordings featuring alt-folk icon, Robert Wyatt (1981-1983). All the recordings were released by London independent, Cherry Red. Merging their respective early non-rock influences their first release was a stark acoustic cover of Cole Porter's "Night and Day" (1982) on Cherry Red. Originally intended as a last-minute B-side to two originals, it unintentionally threw the pair into the burgeoning London jazz-pop scene.

Each then released acclaimed minimalistic solo albums that topped the UK Indie Charts - Tracey's 'A Distant Shore' (1982) and Ben's 'North Marine Drive' (1983) before they pooled songs for the Everything But The Girl debut, 'Eden', recorded with producer Robin Millar in the summer of 1983, but not released due to contractual issues involved in their move to Blanco Y Negro/WEA until May 1984. It spawned a Top 40 hit ('Each And Every One') and went on to sell 500,000 copies.

Edsel is proud to release the duo's first four albums in beautifully presented 2 CD casebound books, put together with the full involvement of Ben and Tracey, and each one featuring a newly-written note by the couple, and all the lyrics. 'Eden' features 17 bonus tracks: 8 non-album single A- and B-sides (including hits "Mine and "Native Land"), 5 previously unreleased home demos and 4 contemporary previously unreleased BBC radio session recordings, personally selected by Ben.