Beth Orton: Classic or Dud?

^ 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

'Pass in Time' from Central Reservation is about her mum and is absolutely beautiful (features Terry Callier too, resonating like a cathedral around her).

a Martyn-esque vocal, that one

Aye, for sure. Almost disappointed to realise it's not Danny Thompson playing bass.

Should probably be a thread for this, but her whispered 1-2-3, 2-2-3 on 'Pass in Time' is one of the finest I can think of.

My vinyl copy came today. It sounds glorious. 'Friday Night' has gone instantly into the 'songs that nail the comfort/painful nostalgia of middle age*' canon. I find it a difficult listen.

*which is actually a pretty shallow canon, come to think of it. Thread idea?

'Shallow canon' seems like a mixed metaphor, but I can't think of the right adjective.

Have ordered. Not sure I would have heard the album without this thread (and then a handful of plays on Spotify).

i haven't heard the album yet but that video for "friday night" is the best thing i've seen in years?

Chinaski, you'll need to elaborate on what you mean by "comfort/painful nostalgia of middle age". Or maybe just list a few more titles?

I'm sure it sounds gorgeous on vinyl, but I have a hard time committing to dynamic albums with lots of quiet passages on LP. Even with a good clean, the odd pop or crackle always seems to arrive at the wrong moment and shake me out of the spell. It was a toss up, but I ended up ordering the CD.

loving the album. it feels really light and comfortable overall.

For me "comfort/painful nostalgia of middle age" is whatever I'm listening to rn.

[checks what's playing on the stereo, realizes it's Roxy Music and is forced to concur with Ghost Club]

For me "comfort/painful nostalgia of middle age" is whatever I'm listening to rn.

Hahaha. Yes, this.

'Friday Night' as I read it, is about Orton escaping the Friday night cycle of booze and regret, but there's an ache of nostalgia in the 'Friday night' refrain.

As a specific category, it was a vague thought about a particular kind of song, from an artist of a particular age, looking back from a place of safety at a time of wildness. I'm sure there must be a raft of examples. "All My Friends" by LCD Soundsystem, probably.

I long for the days of disorder. I want them back, the days when I was alive on the earth, rippling in the quick of my skin, heedless and real. I was dumb-muscled and angry and real. This is what I long for, the breach of peace, the days of disarray when I walked real streets and did things slap-bang and felt angry and ready all the time, a danger to others and a distant mystery to myself.

I like this album a lot. Haven’t heard anything by her since the very good Comfort of Strangers. Given her always obvious roots in the British mystic-folk lineage the orchestral arrangements feel like a natural evolution. Hits some of the same spots the Cassandra Jenkins album did for me.

I was/am looking forward to seeing her live in November; the last time I saw her was after Daybreaker and she was good but it was a radio station sponsored show with a bunch of yahoos at it and the crowd really ruined it for me. HOWEVER: checked out some recent youtubes and wow her voice is in very very bad shape. It sounds rough on the album, but sandpaper rough, in a good way; but dare I say the clips I saw of her live she wounds significantly worse than even bryan ferry did live this week. Is this the effect of whatever medication she's started due to her epilepsy?

The last YouTube's I saw ahead of this new album was the tour with Mercury Rev where she sang all the Bobbie Gentry tracks, mostly from "The Delta Sweete" and she sounded fine there.

I really think her sightly ragged vocals on Weather Alive are what really make the album.

Slightly*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYH1JG-7Hj0

this isn't abjectly terrible, but she's displaying some significant degradation in her vocal abilities; there are some more recent ones with a band that are more troubling. some of it also seems kind of like nervousness (her hands seem to be trembling as well), so maybe this will improve as she plays out more again.

yeah on recent live videos her voice is very very rough. she made the it work on the album at least

“This is how I sing. This is my voice now,” she said. “This is who I am and this is what life has made of me.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/arts/music/beth-orton-weather-alive.html?smid=url-share&fbclid=IwAR04XuzWFeXkOcEivXxBfgQC2orGuFi6xDTeGCYYpwgchSmQJM0zs1pZBAc

Ach, paywalled

https://archive.ph/ivmzW