Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt return to their acoustic roots for the follow-up to 2023’s Fuse, with the 10-track album recorded largely live in London and inspired by a series of intimate performances.
Everything But The Girl will release their new album Blue Reservoir on 19 February 2027, continuing the unexpected second chapter of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt’s recording partnership following their 2023 comeback album Fuse. The British duo have also unveiled the first single, Young and Dumb, offering an early indication of a move towards guitar-led songwriting and the more intimate musical approach that defined their early career.
The 10-track album will be released through Buzzin’ Fly/Virgin Music Group. While Fuse reintroduced Everything But The Girl to recording after 24 years without a studio album, Blue Reservoir has developed from a different starting point, shaped by the experience of returning to live performance in small London venues.
The turning point was a series of intimate shows at the MOTH Club, an East London venue with a capacity of around 300. Beginning in 2025, the performances brought Thorn and Watt back together on stage after approximately 25 years away from performing as a duo. What began as a limited run expanded into around 30 shows, giving the pair an opportunity to revisit the direct, understated musical relationship that had brought them together in the first place.
“There was an intensity and simplicity to the MOTH shows that took us back to how we started out,” Thorn said. “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.”
That approach carries through Young and Dumb, which opens with Watt playing Spanish nylon-string guitar before settling into a gently swaying arrangement with bossa nova influences. Rather than leaning on the electronic production that became central to Everything But The Girl during the 1990s, the single puts the interplay between the guitar, Thorn’s vocals and the song’s melodic structure at the forefront.
Watt purchased the Spanish guitar at the beginning of 2026. Its sound became an important catalyst for the new material, reconnecting him with musical influences that had shaped his early development as a songwriter.
“It is the sound of so much of the music I first connected with growing up, and I’d never actually owned one,” Watt said. “It became quite an emotional springboard for me. I found a voice I thought I’d lost.”
Nine of the album’s 10 songs were written on guitar, with the remaining composition developed on piano. The duo recorded most of Blue Reservoir live over 10 days at London’s RAK Studios in July 2026, favouring a performance-based approach over the layered electronic construction associated with much of their later work.
Longtime collaborators Rex Horan on double bass and Evan Jenkins on drums joined the sessions, with percussionist Fabio de Oliveira also contributing. Thorn and Watt’s son Blake Watt appears on two tracks, adding another family connection to the recording.
The album’s direction represents another change in a career that has repeatedly resisted remaining in one musical category. Formed in 1982, Everything But The Girl initially developed a reputation for sophisticated pop built around Thorn’s distinctive voice, Watt’s songwriting and arrangements drawing on jazz, Latin music and acoustic influences.
Their international breakthrough came with Missing, originally released on 1994’s Amplified Heart. Todd Terry’s subsequent remix transformed the song into a worldwide hit, reaching No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1995. The success helped lead the duo towards the electronic and dance-influenced sound explored further on Walking Wounded in 1996 and Temperamental in 1999.
After their final performance of that period in 2000, Thorn and Watt pursued separate careers. Thorn released solo albums and became an established author, while Watt continued working in music as a DJ, producer and label founder through Buzzin’ Fly. Their return with Fuse in April 2023 demonstrated that their creative partnership remained active, with the album reaching No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart.
Blue Reservoir now extends that return without simply repeating the sound of Fuse. The new record instead draws on the immediacy of their recent live performances, placing songwriting, voice and acoustic instrumentation at the centre of the arrangements.
The video for Young and Dumb, directed by Edward Bishop from a treatment by Thorn and Watt, was filmed at the MOTH Club, connecting the first single directly to the performances that helped inspire the album.
With Blue Reservoir, Everything But The Girl continue to explore the musical connection that has sustained their partnership for more than four decades, moving between acoustic songwriting and electronic production without treating either approach as a permanent destination.
Everything But The Girl – Blue Reservoir Tracklisting
1. Forward
2. Scala
3. Young and Dumb
4. Do What You Can
5. Christmas Gone
6. Courage Mon Brave
7. The Round and Round
8. Fork in the Road
9. Good Hope
10. The Great Unknown
Album: Blue Reservoir
Artist: Everything But The Girl
Release date: 19 February 2027
Label: Buzzin’ Fly/Virgin Music Group
First single: Young and Dum
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