Acoustic

by William Ruhlmann Acoustic presents two side projects in one. The first half of it consists of Everything but the Girl's covers of six songs by other contemporary performers. The second half contains two live recordings and four re-recordings of songs from Everything but the Girl's repertoire. All of the songs are performed with spare, acoustic instrumentation. The group's favorites are predictable -- Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, and Tom Waits at their quietest -- and while the choices are indisputably good ones -- "Alison," "Downtown Train," Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" -- they are also familiar, and Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn don't bring anything new to them. Their own material is calm and contemplative anyway, so stripping away the synthesizers doesn't affect the arrangements much. Acoustic is a pleasant-sounding, inessential Everything but the Girl album.