EVERYTHING BUT THE CHURL : EBTG Got Its Name the Way the Sex Pistols Did, but That’s Where the Comparison Ends

Like the Sex Pistols, who named themselves after a punk fashion boutique, Everything But the Girl appropriated its name from an English commercial establishment. The phrase was the slogan of a furniture store in Hull, where musical partners Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt met as university students in 1981.

Unlike the Sex Pistols, Everything But the Girl has had nothing to do with rude, confrontational noises, turbulent, controversial image-mongering, and self-immolation as a career move.

Thorn, the primary singer, and Watt, who supports her on guitars and keyboards, harmonizes, and takes the occasional lead vocal, have spent the past 10 years fashioning a low-keyed, well-crafted and diverse brand of intelligent pop.

A more accurate name might be Everything’s Possible Because of the Girl. Thorn, a shy performer who does not cultivate a glamorous image, has a lovely, clear alto voice that tugs at a listener’s feelings without any showy straining for effect. Over the course of eight U.S. albums (none of them hits here, although EBTG does well in England, Europe and Japan), the duo--which plays sold-out shows at the Coach House on Monday and Tuesday--has tried an array of settings for that voice.

Cool, urbane, seductively rhythmic songs, akin to the jazzy R & B style popularized by Sade, have been one facet of EBTG’s output. On the 1986 album, “Baby, the Stars Shine Bright,” the duo punched up its sound with horns and strings, with results that bring back memories of Dionne Warwick’s classic ‘60s collaborations with Burt Bacharach and Hal David. The album also included a couple of nods to the pop-country of Patsy Cline and the R & B-country of Ray Charles. But the duo didn’t pursue those country strains, leaving the field open for k.d. lang a few years later.

Thorn and Watt, who write songs both separately and together, came up with their most personal collection on “Idlewild,” a sparsely produced 1988 album. By 1990, they had switched labels (moving from Sire to Atlantic) and strategies, producing, in “The Language of Life,” a slick pop-R & B album that featured high-profile L.A. session players, as well as a solo turn by the late jazz saxophonist Stan Getz on Watt’s stark, rueful lounge ballad, “The Road.”

Since then, Thorn and Watt seem to have decided, quite rightly, that for them less is more. The duo’s three releases since 1991 have been dominated by sparsely rendered folk-pop that forms an ideal backdrop for Thorn’s voice. In these minimalist settings, the lyrics can have a greater impact, and EBTG is often able to bestow them with psychological insights and evocative scenarios that give staying power to what otherwise might become a routine venting of melancholy.

Another facet of Thorn and Watt’s work has been a penchant for covering pop nuggets from such sources as Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and Crazy Horse (their reading of the Horse’s gorgeous sans-Neil Young ballad “I Don’t Want to Talk About It” was a big hit in England). A few months ago, they were reportedly translating noise-rock into mellifluous pop by doing a version of a Sonic Youth song in their live set.

“Amplified Heart,” the current album by Everything But the Girl, is one of their best. The L.A. session men have been replaced by veterans of the British folk-rock movement of the late-’60s: bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Dave Mattacks. Richard Thompson, the figurehead of that movement, guests as lead guitarist on “25th December,” Watt’s poignant depiction of the knotted strands of pride and resentment that can keep close kin emotionally distant.

On Tuesday, besides the Coach House date, Watt will be marking his 32nd birthday. (Thorn, who is his romantic as well as musical partner, is two months older.) The couple may have a greater appreciation than most thirtysomethings of the value of being able to count off another year. During 1992, Watt was stricken by Churg Strauss Syndrome, a rare disorder of the autoimmune system that almost proved fatal and left him debilitated for about a year before he recovered. Longtime fans of EBTG will note a marked change from the the round-faced, cherubic-looking Watt of past album covers, to the gaunt figure on “Amplified Heart.”

The duo has said the ordeal influenced the downcast mood of the album, but they resolved not to approach the subject of illness literally in their music. Those needing an upbeat note can find it in the album track “We Walk the Same Line,” a winsome declaration of the will to endure through troubles. It sounds like a prime Fleetwood Mac cut with Thorn and Watt doing their best approximation of Christine McVie backed by Lindsey Buckingham.

* What: Everything But the Girl.

* When: Monday, Dec. 5, and Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 8 p.m.

* Where: The Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano.

* Whereabouts: Take the San Diego (5) Freeway to the San Juan Creek Road exit and turn left onto Camino Capistrano. The Coach House is on the right in the Esplanade Plaza.

* Wherewithal: $19.50. BOTH SHOWS ARE SOLD OUT.

* Where to call (714) 496-8930.

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