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One of U.K. pop’s most beloved duos is looking back with a new compilation that succinctly surveys their many albums over the last 40 years.

The Best of Everything But the Girl offers 16 tracks from the pair on one CD or two LPs, spanning their debut single (a cover of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day”) all the way up to 2023’s Fuse – their first album in more than two decades. It includes U.K. hits like “I Don’t Want to Talk About It” and “Walking Wounded,” the fan favorite “Driving,” and of course, their international smash “Missing,” as dramatically remixed by Todd Terry. The tracks have been remastered for this album by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, and each format will include lyrics and complete credits in a booklet (16 pages for the CD and four for the 180-gram LP). It’s available November 14.

Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt met as students at the University of Hull. Thorn, already a member of the trio Marine Girls, found a unique musical chemistry with Watt from their first release, a samba-style take on “Night and Day” that became a popular track for U.K. indie Cherry Red. As the decade went on, they’d record a body of work that largely fit with England’s trend of jazz-adjacent sophisti-pop: winning melodies and light arrangements with the occasional session flourishes (as on 1990’s “slightly-slick” The Language of Life, recorded on both coasts of the United States). Things changed considerably after Watt’s near-death battle with a rare autoimmune disease in 1992; EBTG bounced back with Amplified Heart, a mix of folk-y pop and a growing interest in dance music. The unlikely combination led to a remix of single “Missing” that recast the song from downtempo to deep house. The mix reached No. 3 on the U.K. charts and a spot higher in the U.S., a market that had no singles from the duo reach the chart before.

Though “Missing” was followed by the critical and commercial success of Walking Wounded in 1996, EBTG only recorded one more album (1997’s Temperamental) before quietly taking some time off. Thorn took a lengthy absence from making music, and she and Watt were most primarily focused on each other: long unpublicized as a couple, the pair married in 2009. But their creative spirit together would not be fully extinguished: in 2023, they returned with Fuse, an intriguing new LP that called back to the sophisticated and uptempo elements of their catalogue while pushing themselves in interesting directions.

A trailer for the set is above, and pre-order links and a track list are below. (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)

The Best of Everything But the Girl (Chrysalis, 2025)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

1. Missing (Todd Terry Remix)
2. Nothing Left to Lose
3. Tracey in My Room (Lazy Dog Bootleg Vocal Mix)
4. Walking Wounded
5. Single
6. Corcovado
7. Before Today
8. No Difference
9. Driving
10. Each and Every One
11. Rollercoaster
12. I Don’t Want to Talk About It
13. The Only Living Boy in New York
14. Cross My Heart
15. Run a Red Light
16. Night and Day

Original version of Track 1 and Track 11 released on Amplified Heart – Blanco y Negro 4509-96482-2 (U.K.), 1994
Tracks 2 and 15 released on Fuse – Buzzin’ Fly/Virgin/Verve EBTG015CD, 2023
Original version of Track 3 and Track 8 released on Temperamental – Virgin CDV2892 (U.K.), 1997
Tracks 4-5 and 7 released on Walking Wounded – Virgin CDV2803 (U.K.), 1996
Track 6 released on Like the Deserts Miss the Rain – Virgin CDV 2966 (U.K.), 2002
Track 9 released on The Language of Life – Blanco y Negro BYN 21 (U.K.), 1990
Track 10 released on Eden – Blanco y Negro BYN 2 (U.K.), 1984
Track 12 released on Idlewild – Blanco y Negro BYN 14 (U.K.), 1988
Track 13 released on The Only Living Boy in New York EP – Blanco y Negro NEG 62 (U.K.), 1993
Track 14 released on Baby, the Stars Shine Bright – Blanco y Negro BYN 9 (U.K.), 1986
Track 16 released on Cherry Red single 37 (U.K.), 1982