A Distant Shore

TRACEY THORN, as you should be well aware, is a third of the Marine Girls and one half of Everything But The Girl. This record is a mini LP, about 25 minutes in duration and retailing for a suitably mid-range fee. It contains eight songs, seven Thorn-penned originals plus a near dewy-eyed working of 'Femme Fetale'.

Nothing here but guitar and vocals. Initially, it is almost stunning in its very simplicity. These days, there seems to be a growing proliferation of 'quiet' groups in what amounts to a virtual anti-harsh music backlash.

The Pale Weekends and the Aztec Fountains can, if you get my gist, be okay but often they seem far too methodical and deliberate. As if what they do is a studied, calculated venture into the New Passivity (sic).

The sheer joy of 'A Distant Shore' is that it sounds timeless and entirely natural. Tracey provides a sweet calm, an oasis of sense and sanity in the desperate music biz production line aridity.

Her songs have a remarkable lyrical depth (without being furrowed-brow deep) and their totally unforced sophistication is effortlessly (it seems) arranged into sublimely haunting melodies.

Her voice, beautifully recorded, transmits with a lingering warmth and passion. Its lush waves of persuasion glide over the dreamily toned impressionistic guitar.

Hear it. Melt.