Everything But the Girl has shown a tremendous staying power over the last two decades. I remember hearing their first album (circa 1985) at a party thrown by two British friends of mine. I was sold on the spot and spent the rest of the evening listening to the record. And I never stopped! With every new record the sequence is the same: first,I'm annoyed at their loss of 'sound'; then, after a while it starts to grow on me; and then, yet a little later, I come to the -- reluctant -- conclusion that they've done it again. They've reinvented themselves but somehow managed to stay the same.

I'm not aware of any other band that has produced such a tremendous range in different sounds whilst keeping the original 'cast'.

The themes of the music run the gamut of political protest to love songs, occasional instrumental songs and almost always a line in a lyric that touches your heart.