Walking Wounded

Walking Wounded was released on 6 May 1996 by Virgin in Europe and on 21 May by Atlantic in the United States, after the duo's UK label Blanco y Negro had dropped them. It followed the success of the Todd Terry remix of "Missing" and moved them to an electronica-based style, with collaborations with Spring Heel Jack and Howie B. It was recorded in 1995 at Little Joey's, Milo and Strongroom in London.

The way the pair wrote changed. Watt produced instrumental tracks and Thorn wrote lyrics after hearing the finished music. Watt drew on samples from unusual sources: "Single" used material from Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" and Stan Tracey's "Starless and Bible Black". Thorn later said they finally understood their strength, the softness and warmth of her voice against urban beats, and called it their pop triumph. Pitchfork's Ruth Saxelby, in a 2019 Sunday Review, said the record draws on downtempo, drum and bass and trip-hop, and that it was made in a much more insular way than their earlier albums. She wrote that Thorn wrote "Single" in a New York hotel room while promoting with Massive Attack, and that the duo spent a couple of months in New York in spring 1995 working on ideas for the album.

It reached number 4 in the UK, which stayed their highest UK album position until Fuse in 2023, and number 37 on the Billboard 200. Four singles followed: "Walking Wounded", "Wrong", "Single" and "Before Today". By February 1997 it had sold 750,000 copies worldwide according to Billboard, and later it passed 1,300,000. In Entertainment Weekly, Jim Farber called its fusion of electronic and pop styles groundbreaking. The Guardian's Sheryl Garratt called it more a gentle updating than a reinvention. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine said the duo found a way to fold the rhythms into carefully crafted songs. It placed 12th in The Village Voice's Jazz and Pop critics' poll for the year and is included in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Edsel Records reissued it as a two-disc deluxe set on 4 September 2015.