Walking Wounded

According to Pitchfork{{'}}s Ruth Saxelby, Walking Wounded draws on downtempo, drum and bass, and trip hop music, "compressing the wide open space of those then-nascent sounds into a pop format". AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that the album is informed musically by trip hop and techno, albeit eschewing the "free-form song structures" traditionally associated with those genres. Treble writer Adam Blyweiss viewed it as a refinement of Everything but the Girl's earlier sophisti-pop sound that "replaced many of the duo's acoustics with reasonable digital facsimiles".{{cite web |url=https://www.treblezine.com/10-essential-sophisti-pop-albums/ |title=10 Essential Sophisti-pop albums |website=Treble |date=24 April 2014 |access-date=21 May 2020 |last1=Terich |first1=Jeff |last2=Blyweiss |first2=Adam |last3=Bossenger |first3=A. T. |last4=Prickett |first4=Sam}}

Walking Wounded marked a change in the duo's approach to writing songs. Ben Watt produced various instrumental tracks, while Tracey Thorn wrote lyrics after listening to the completed tracks.{{cite magazine |url=https://recordcollectormag.com/articles/tracey-thorn |title=Small Town Girl |magazine=Record Collector |issue=479 |date=May 2018 |access-date=21 May 2020 |last=Wilson |first=Lois |pages=64–66}} In producing the tracks, Watt utilised samples from "unusual" sources; the song "Single", for instance, sampled Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" and Stan Tracey's "Starless and Bible Black". Thorn later recalled: "We really believed in ourselves and that comes across in the sound. We'd finally got to the point where we realised what our strength was: the softness and warmth of my voice against urban beats; the warm and cold, the soft and hard contrast. We got it perfect on this record; it was our pop triumph."

Walking Wounded was released on 6 May 1996 by Virgin Records in Europe,{{cite magazine |title=New Releases: Albums |magazine=Music Week |date=4 May 1996 |pages=34–35}} and on 21 May 1996 by Atlantic Records in the United States.{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9gsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA28 |title=Everything but the Girl Does No 'Wrong' Remixes |magazine=Billboard |volume=108 |issue=18 |date=4 May 1996 |access-date=11 July 2024 |last=Flick |first=Larry |author-link=Larry Flick |pages=28–29}} It reached number four on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the duo's highest-charting album in the United Kingdom until 2023's Fuse,{{cite web |url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/20844/everything-but-the-girl/ |title=Everything But The Girl |publisher=Official Charts Company |access-date=12 July 2024}} and peaked at number 37 on the US Billboard 200. Four singles were released from Walking Wounded: "Walking Wounded" on 8 April 1996,{{cite magazine |title=New Releases: Singles |magazine=Music Week |date=6 April 1996 |page=47}} "Wrong" on 17 June 1996,{{cite magazine |title=New Releases: Singles |magazine=Music Week |date=15 June 1996 |page=31}} "Single" on 23 September 1996,{{cite magazine |title=New Releases: Singles |magazine=Music Week |date=21 September 1996 |page=43}} and "Before Today" on 17 February 1997.{{cite magazine |title=New Releases: Singles |magazine=Music Week |date=15 February 1997 |page=31}} By February 1997, the album had sold 750,000 copies worldwide, according to Billboard.{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sQ4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA46 |title=Who's Selling Where |magazine=Billboard |volume=109 |issue=8 |date=22 February 1997 |access-date=2 September 2017 |page=46}} It went on to sell over 1,300,000 copies worldwide.{{cite web |url=http://ebtg.com/about/ |title=About |publisher=ebtg.com |access-date=23 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317050413/http://ebtg.com/about/ |archive-date=17 March 2018 |url-status=dead}}

Walking Wounded was reissued by Edsel Records as a two-disc deluxe set on 4 September 2015.{{cite web |url=http://ebtg.com/ |title=Deluxe Re-Issues of Walking Wounded and Temperamental out Sep 4 |publisher=ebtg.com |date=2 September 2015 |access-date=21 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151201215915/http://ebtg.com/ |archive-date=1 December 2015 |url-status=dead}} On 8 November 2019, the album was re-released on vinyl by Buzzin' Fly Records.{{cite web |url=https://unmaderoad.com/collections/everything-but-the-girl/products/everything-but-the-girl-walking-wounded-vinyl-lp |title=Everything But The Girl – Walking Wounded (Vinyl Reissue) |publisher=Unmade Road |access-date=21 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101015913/https://unmaderoad.com/collections/everything-but-the-girl/products/everything-but-the-girl-walking-wounded-vinyl-lp |archive-date=1 November 2020 |url-status=dead}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/walking-wounded-mw0000647983 |title=Walking Wounded – Everything But the Girl |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=9 July 2016 |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |author-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine}}

| rev2 = Chicago Tribune

| rev2score = {{Rating|3.5|4}}{{cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1996/05/30/everything-but-the-girlwalking-wounded-atlantic-star/ |title=Everything But the Girl: Walking Wounded (Atlantic) |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=30 May 1996 |access-date=9 July 2016 |last=Kot |first=Greg |author-link=Greg Kot}}

| rev3 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev3score = A{{cite magazine |url=https://ew.com/article/1996/05/24/walking-wounded/ |title=Walking Wounded |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=24 May 1996 |access-date=9 July 2016 |last=Farber |first=Jim}}

| rev4 = The Guardian

| rev4score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite news |title=CD of the week: Everything but the Girl |newspaper=The Guardian |date=10 May 1996 |last=Garratt |first=Sheryl}}

| rev5 = Mojo

| rev5score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine |title=Everything but the Girl: Walking Wounded |magazine=Mojo |issue=315 |date=February 2020 |last=Segal |first=Victoria |page=105}}

| rev6 = NME

| rev6score = 6/10{{cite magazine |title=Missing Inaction |magazine=NME |date=4 May 1996 |last=Crysell |first=Andy |page=56}}

| rev7 = Pitchfork

| rev7score = 6.6/10 (1996){{cite web |url=http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/e/everything-but-the-girl/walking-wounded.shtml |title=Everything But The Girl: Walking Wounded |website=Pitchfork |access-date=5 October 2016 |last=Schreiber |first=Ryan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060221115153/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/e/everything-but-the-girl/walking-wounded.shtml |archive-date=21 February 2006 |url-status=dead}}
9.0/10 (2019){{cite web |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/everything-but-the-girl-walking-wounded/ |title=Everything But the Girl: Walking Wounded |website=Pitchfork |date=3 March 2019 |access-date=3 March 2019 |last=Saxelby |first=Ruth}}

| rev8 = Q

| rev8score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine |title=Everything but the Girl: Walking Wounded |magazine=Q |issue=117 |date=June 1996 |last=Cooper |first=Mark}}

| rev9 = Rolling Stone

| rev9score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine |url=http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/everythingbutthegirl/albums/album/92153/review/5946061/walking_wounded |title=Everything But the Girl: Walking Wounded |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=13 June 1996 |access-date=9 July 2016 |last=Hardy |first=Ernest |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080424013752/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/everythingbutthegirl/albums/album/92153/review/5946061/walking_wounded |archive-date=24 April 2008 |url-status=dead}}

| rev10 = Spin

| rev10score = 9/10{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dTM_D4UWqXQC&pg=PA88 |title=Everything but the Girl: Walking Wounded |magazine=Spin |volume=12 |issue=4 |date=July 1996 |access-date=9 July 2016 |last=Huston |first=Johnny |page=88}}

}}

Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Jim Farber hailed the fusion of electronic and pop styles on Walking Wounded as "groundbreaking" and "at once abstract and immediate, untamed and accessible", while also crediting the "psychological resonance" of the lyrics for "putting EBTG way above the campiness of most neo-lounge acts." Johnny Huston of Spin found that the album's songs are rooted in a "messy intimacy" uncommon in pop music, and that Everything but the Girl's balancing of "tradition and experimentation" and "softness and bite" makes Walking Wounded "more interesting" than the purely instrumental work of the duo's collaborators. In The Guardian, Sheryl Garratt said that the duo had "intelligently" incorporated light drum and bass elements into their sound on an album she called "more a gentle updating" than "a reinvention". Andy Crysell was more ambivalent in NME, expressing disappointment that the record did not constitute an "all-out conversion" to electronic music, although finding its songs "well-crafted and no doubt spectacularly meaningful".

In his retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that Everything but the Girl, being "at its core{{nbsp}}... a pop group", had in a sense "dilute[d]" trip hop and techno by adhering to pop song structures on Walking Wounded, yet they "found a way around that by seamlessly incorporating the rhythms into carefully crafted songs." For Pitchfork, Ruth Saxelby discussed Walking Wounded in context with the rest of the group's oeuvre:

{{blockquote|Each Everything but the Girl album has its own style and story, but the one on which Thorn and Watt's individual gifts shine brightest is the one on which they stripped everything back. They shared their knottiest feelings, created dialogue with skeletal new sounds, and made the record in a much more insular way than they ever had previously. Its timely sonics and emotionally wrought themes spoke as much to teenagers, myself included, as it did the band's adult contemporaries (Bristol drum 'n' bass head Roni Size gave it thumbs up).}}

Walking Wounded was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.{{cite book |chapter=Everything but the Girl: Walking Wounded |last=Cartwright |first=Garth |title=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die |title-link=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die |editor-last=Dimery |editor-first=Robert |publisher=Universe Publishing |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7893-1371-3 |page=787}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Walking Wounded track listing

| total_length = 52:18

| title1 = Before Today

| lyrics1 = Ben Watt

| music1 = Watt

| length1 = 4:18

| title2 = Wrong

| length2 = 4:36

| lyrics2 = Tracey Thorn

| music2 = Watt

| title3 = Single

| lyrics3 = Thorn

| music3 = Watt

| length3 = 4:38

| title4 = The Heart Remains a Child

| lyrics4 = Thorn

| music4 = Thorn

| length4 = 3:50

| title5 = Walking Wounded

| lyrics5 = Watt

| music5 = {{hlist|Ashley Wales|John Coxon}}

| length5 = 6:05

| title6 = Flipside

| lyrics6 = Watt

| music6 = Watt

| length6 = 4:33

| title7 = Big Deal

| lyrics7 = Thorn

| music7 = Watt

| length7 = 4:29

| title8 = Mirrorball

| lyrics8 = Thorn

| music8 = Watt

| length8 = 3:27

| title9 = Good Cop Bad Cop

| lyrics9 = Thorn

| music9 = Watt

| length9 = 4:54

| title10 = Wrong

| note10 = Todd Terry remix

| lyrics10 = Thorn

| music10 = Watt

| length10 = 4:45

| title11 = Walking Wounded

| note11 = Omni Trio remix

| lyrics11 = Watt

| music11 = {{hlist|Wales|Coxon}}

| length11 = 6:43

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Deluxe edition disc 1 track listing

| total_length = 74:33

| title12 = Corcovado

| lyrics12 =

| music12 =

| length12 = 3:54

| title13 = Before Today

| note13 = live

| length13 = 6:30

| lyrics13 =

| music13 =

| title14 = Single

| note14 = live

| lyrics14 =

| music14 =

| length14 = 4:51

| title15 = Wrong

| note15 = live

| lyrics15 =

| music15 =

| length15 = 7:00

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Deluxe edition disc 2 track listing

| total_length = 79:14

| title1 = Mirrorball

| note1 = demo

| lyrics1 =

| music1 =

| length1 = 3:31

| title2 = Flipside

| note2 = demo

| length2 = 3:56

| lyrics2 =

| music2 =

| title3 = Above the Law

| note3 = demo

| lyrics3 =

| music3 =

| length3 = 4:24

| title4 = Speeding Car Side On

| note4 = instrumental demo

| lyrics4 =

| music4 =

| length4 = 4:02

| title5 = Walking Wounded

| note5 = Dave Wallace remix

| lyrics5 =

| music5 =

| length5 = 8:19

| title6 = Wrong

| note6 = Mood II Swing dub

| lyrics6 =

| music6 =

| length6 = 8:54

| title7 = Wrong

| note7 = Deep Dish remix

| lyrics7 =

| music7 =

| length7 = 4:03

| title8 = Single

| note8 = Photek remix

| lyrics8 =

| music8 =

| length8 = 5:18

| title9 = Single

| note9 = Brad Wood Memphis remix

| lyrics9 =

| music9 =

| length9 = 4:42

| title10 = Before Today

| note10 = Nellee Hooper remix

| lyrics10 =

| music10 =

| length10 = 5:42

| title11 = Before Today

| note11 = Adam F remix

| lyrics11 =

| music11 =

| length11 = 4:14

| title12 = Before Today

| note12 = Chicane remix

| lyrics12 =

| music12 =

| length12 = 6:25

| title13 = Before Today

| note13 = Dillinja remix

| length13 = 4:57

| lyrics13 =

| music13 =

| title14 = Mirrorball

| note14 = DJ Jazzy Jeff Sole Full remix

| lyrics14 =

| music14 =

| length14 = 4:28

| title15 = Corcovado

| note15 = Knee Deep Classic Club Mix Ben Watt vocal re-edit

| lyrics15 =

| music15 =

| length15 = 6:19

}}

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.{{cite AV media notes |title=Walking Wounded |others=Everything but the Girl |publisher=Virgin Records |year=1996 |id=7243 8 41698 2 4 / CDV2803 |type=liner notes}}

{{columns-start}}

Everything but the Girl

• Tracey Thorn – vocals
• Ben Watt – acoustic guitar, vocals, abstract sounds, beats, synthesizer, production, programming, recording

Production

• Andy Bradfield – mixing
• Mads Bjerke – engineering on "Walking Wounded"
• Spring Heel Jack – mixing, production, and programming on "Walking Wounded"
• Howie B – co-production, programming, and scratching on "Flipside"
• Johnny Rockstar – additional programming on "Flipside"
• Jeremy Shaw – additional programming on "Flipside"
• Matthius H. – engineering on "Wrong" (Todd Terry remix)
• Todd Terry – additional production and remixing on "Wrong" (Todd Terry remix)
• Rob Haigh – engineering, additional production, and remixing on "Walking Wounded" (Omni Trio remix)

{{column}}

Design

• Everything but the Girl – design
• Jim Friedman – inner sleeve photography
• Form – design
• Marcelo Krasilcic – cover photography

{{columns-end}}

{{columns-start}}

{{column}}

{{columns-end}}

{{Certification Table Top|caption=Certifications for Walking Wounded}}

{{Certification Table Entry|type=album|region=Australia|award=Gold|certyear=1996|access-date=11 July 2024}}

{{Certification Table Entry|type=album|region=New Zealand|artist=Everything but the Girl|title=Walking Wounded|id=1997-03-28|source=newchart|access-date=2024-11-20|award=Gold}}

{{Certification Table Entry|type=album|region=United Kingdom|artist=Everything but the Girl|title=Walking Wounded|award=Platinum|certyear=1996|id=8050-1086-2|access-date=23 March 2018}}

{{Certification Table Bottom|nosales=true}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Discogs master|72865|Walking Wounded}}
• {{YouTube|p=OLAK5uy_nVrWy7jixt-tF6ADSVJFCAuMh7pyqG5RY|Walking Wounded}}

{{Everything but the Girl}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1996 albums

Category:Atlantic Records albums

Category:Everything but the Girl albums

Category:Virgin Records albums

Category:Drum and bass albums

Category:Trip hop albums by English artists