Worldwide (Digital Version)

Following 1990’s swanky foray into smooth jazz (The Language of Life), Everything but the Girl assumed a lighter pop feel for 1991’s Worldwide. The songs here have much more in common with works by Prince, and even Michael Jackson. “Understanding” could be taken as a sequel to the King of Pop’s “Human Nature”—and a stellar one at that. While other young bands went for brashness and spectacle, EBTG were all about subtlety, sincerity, and sensuality. The yearning expressed by Tracey Thorn on “British Summertime,” “Frozen River,” and “Old Friends” is a mature yearning—the bittersweet mix of romantic regret that only develops after youth has passed. The music can seem deceptively breezy as it invites you into a world that becomes more complex through the sensitivity of Thorn and her partner, Ben Watt. The nostalgic-seeming memories of “Boxing and Pop Music” are reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen, while “Talk to Me Like the Sea” is practically a Prince song (minus the falsetto). For all their refinement, the duo retained an innocence that resulted in a moving and unadorned cover of Buddy Holly’s “Love Is Strange.”