With
Walking Wounded
,
Everything but the Girl
puts an acceptable face on
trip-hop
jungle
, and
techno
, opening up the world of experimental
dance
music to a new audience. At its core,
is a
pop
group, which means it automatically abandons the free-form song structures that characterize most of
and
. In a sense, that dilutes the impact of the music, but the duo found a way around that by seamlessly incorporating the rhythms into carefully crafted songs. They work the same ground as
Massive Attack
, but their songwriting is more accessible and less adventurous than the groundbreaking Bristol group. Furthermore,
never approaches the tarnished glamour of
Portishead
, the kineticism of
Bjoerk
, or the brilliantly evocative soundscapes of
Tricky
. Essentially, the beats are used as window dressing -- the group's music hasn't changed that much. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine