The Language of Life

The Language of Life
Studio album by
Released5 February 1990 (1990-02-05)
Recorded1989
StudioBill Schnee Studios (Los Angeles)
Sunset Sound (Los Angeles)
Ocean Way Recording (Los Angeles)
Genre
Length41:25
Label
ProducerTommy LiPuma
Everything but the Girl chronology
Idlewild
(1988)
The Language of Life
(1990)
Worldwide
(1991)
Singles from The Language of Life
  1. "Driving"
    Released: 1990
  2. "Take Me"
    Released: 26 March 1990
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic
Entertainment WeeklyB−
NME4/10
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Q
Record Collector
Record Mirror4/5
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Spin Alternative Record Guide7/10

The Language of Life is the fifth studio album by British musical duo Everything but the Girl. It was released on 5 February 1990 by Atlantic Records and Blanco y Negro Records.

The Language of Life became Everything but the Girl's second album to surpass sales of 500,000 copies, but the album divided the group's British fanbase. In 2012, group member Tracey Thorn described The Language of Life as "a slightly slick, kind of semi-jazzy, sophisticated record" and recalled that it "was a definite attempt to try and do something that had a character to it, but in retrospect when we were asked why we had taken that direction, we couldn't entirely say why".