Beth Orton: Classic or Dud?

Somewhere halfway between trailer park and sugaring season maybe

not crazy about this album.

Yeah, not feeling it so far. I much prefer Sugaring Season, but it's early days.

This album is okay.

I heard a little interview with her on Weekend Edition on NPR this morning and her basic response to people who complain she doesn't sound the way she used to is basically "I'm 20 years older and my life is different and the way I think about things is different, so tough shit"—an admirable way to go about life, imo.

Except for blindly spray painting a Joshua Tree because your director tells you to, but she seems legit messed up and apologetic over that whole incident, so good.

finally listening to the full album and it's sort of... fantastic? it's a little difficult to describe how, exactly. "untrendy" got pretty close.

What did untrendy say?

This is so untrendy in 2016 and all the better for it, some of the most immediate melodies she's ever written too. Relieved that despite Andrew Hung's fingerprints it doesn't sound like Fuck Buttons at all.

― boxedjoy, Friday, May 27, 2016 1:37 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ta.

This is really good.

Central Reservation is such a great record

One of the fascinating things about Ilxor, as pointed out above, is the "eight years pass" aspect. The internet has trouble highlighting negative space but "eight years pass" really brings home just how brightly Beth Orton illuminated a certain era and how utterly the world moved on.

From interviews I have the impression she has the same problem as George Harrison, e.g. her life is sorted and she doesn't have a strong songwriting partner unlike e.g. Alison Goldfrapp or Florence Welch. She should hook up with Vini Reilly or someone of that ilk, it would be interesting.

Or Dido's maniacal lust for fame. Beth Orton can at least die happy in the knowledge that she's not Dido.

Found Comfort of Strangers in a clear-out bin on the weekend; love this song, connects to my mood as of late perfectly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYsuL3Pdmws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkSBgl8278E

title track off her new album out september. so beautiful

Oh wow, what a remarkable album. I'm on my third play and it just keeps getting better.

new one is the first thing i've heard by her but it's wonderful, guess i really should check out her discography

cant wait to hear it. 'weather alive' is my favourite song of the year

It was the "later Talk Talk" comparison in the reviews that encouraged me to give it a listen. I was expecting something similar to the Weather Station album, which was pleasant, but this record is on another level. An utter surprise, loose, impolite, vulnerable.

This is quite something, especially "Weather Alive". I haven't heard anything she's done since Trailer Park, which I loved as a teenager but have never revisited.

I'm having trouble finding full credits, but it's worth mentioning Tom Skinner, Shahzad Ismaily, and Alabaster de Plume (just sax) are on the very good "Fractals". I'd guess Skinner is on some other tracks too as the drumming is really good, but I'm not sure

still think she should be the one doing duet albums with robert plant.

i think her band for the whole album was alabaster deplume, tom skinner, shahzad ismaily and tom herbert

This is great, I haven't thought about Beth Orton since her (probably still good?) first album and wouldn't have checked it out without ILM enthusiasm.

50 Words for Snow is the main association for me, also sentimental Tom Waits songs for some reason.

y’all should check out kidsticks from 2016 too

it’s more uhhh pop i guess

First listen tonight and it's gorgeous. I pretty much switched off after Central Reservation but very glad I saw this thread!

^ Weather Alive sounds great.

Must admit that chat about Beth Orton in 2022 made me think something terrible had happened.

Aye, same. ^

Fwiw, I don't think the 'the late Talk Talk' thing does anyone any favours. Nothing is like late Talk Talk.

I saw Beth Orton at a 'secret' King's College gig some time in 2000/2001. It was a gorgeous gig but there was a fire alarm halfway through. I ended up standing out in the rain, next to Jarvis Cocker and Mark Webber. Jarvis peered at me and said 'don't I know you from somewhere?'. I nervously said no, and have since convinced myself that if I'd said yes my whole life would have been different.

TBF when I compared it (elsewhere, though maybe here too) to Talk Talk I was speaking specifically about the arrangements and guitar tones on the title track.

this is getting raves in some wild places (Financial Times, Wall Street Journal)

business press <3 beth

i'm waiting for Barron's to weigh in

the whole album is very good but the first two tracks are utterly transcendent

very much on that talk talk/blue nile/david sylvian etc. axis which i'm always here for

Likewise. Although I'd argue it's more VM's Common One than say, Spirit of Eden or Brilliant Trees. But yeah, it's definitely scratching the same itch.

Apologies - didn't mean to sound snippy about the Talk Talk comparison.
Friday Night is just gorgeous.

Well this is just spectacular. The equivocal nature of Beth’s voice (always sounding like it’s threatening not to cohere into words) and the diffuse arrangements suit each other perfectly.

“Friday Night” is very The Blue Nile, yes (has Kevin heard it?), but otherwise i’m (unsurprisingly) getting strong John Martyn vibes - also the last few Ben Howard albums (which in turn were self-consciously “modern martyn”).

she's always been in the Martyn tradition to me, particulary the second album.

"y’all should check out kidsticks from 2016 too"

meh, that album is very weak IMO, and definitely overshadowed (in california at least) by the outcry over her director's dumb decision to have her paint a Joshua Tree for a video.

I was a huge fan for her first three albums and then kind of lost track of her work; only recently listened to Sugaring Season which I think is pretty strong; Comfort of Strangers, despite having O'Rourke on as producer which should be a homerun, didn't stick in my mind at all; and as I just said, I think Kidsticks is kind of a mess. I gather she's had some difficulties in the years since, and apparently almost lost her voice, so this album is like a gift.

definitely hearing van morrison in this like doug said. also her voice sometimes makes me think of karen dalton, the way she sometimes sounds like she's singing like a muted trumpet

also that rustin man / beth gibbons record seems like a relevant predecessor

...he wrote just having listened to the song 'forever young'

that's one of the best songs on the album as loathe as I am to like yet another song with that title

"I haven't thought about Beth Orton since her (probably still good?) first album" oh yeah it is still good (I assume you mean Trailer Park and not Superpinkymandy). TP and Central Reservation got well deserved RSD reissues this year.

I'm checking this out now. "Friday Night" sounds like it might have been a minor radio hit from precisely 1989-1990 (in a good way).

guess I'm one more who hasn't kept up since Central Reservation, now curious again. also because she has by far the most interesting one of these I've read: https://pitchfork.com/features/5-10-15-20/beth-orton-on-the-music-that-made-her/

Oh this is very special, and very much my thing. I'm definitely getting the Sylvian and late Talk Talk vibes on the title track. (Incidentally those two artists specifically are pretty much all I've been listening to recently, so I'm glad to have something new to indulge in.)

I've never given Orton a listen before; what's worth checking out from her back catalogue? Albums please, I'm an album gal. I like to immerse.

I always loved her first album (that's "Superpinkymandy") but it's very 'clubby' and kinda overwhelms her at times - it was going to come out in the UK as "Burn Blind" by Spill.

The next two, you know. Fairly easy to find second-hand. "Daybreaker" goes here too.

"Comfort of Strangers" has some whoa moments, yeah discover that one!

absolutely fucking astonishing shattering record

I'm liking this album and reacquainting myself with her voice (songwriting and otherwise). I loved Center Reservation but haven't heard much else after it.

*Central

from that pitchfork article, had no idea about this: "When I was 19, my mom died suddenly. On the first anniversary of her death, I went to Thailand and became a nun for three months. I lived in a monastery and meditated a ridiculous number of hours a day, and had some quite extraordinary experiences. "

oh wow and she put the Cleo Sol album on there, nice choice. I love beth orton!

yeah geoffreyess otm about that piece. ilm had already piqued my interest but reading that made me listen to the album