Hailed by some as work of genius and by others as a
pretentious statement, Beth Gibbons’s first album
is definitely causing a bit of a stir. Better known
for being the voice of Portishead, Beth Gibbons has
cast an unforgettable mark on British music. With a
truly unique voice, able to carry a multitude of emotions
by adapting to the atmosphere of a song, Beth had long
since joined Marianne Faithful and Liz Fraser in the
ranks of the greatest British female voices.
Formed in Bristol in the mid nineties, Portishead brought
a new dimension to the trip hop scene with cinematic
melodies, emotional definition and hip hop beat structures
with their first album, Dummy, released in
1994. Instantly recognised as a classic recording, Dummy
went on to become one of the biggest sellers that year,
not only in the UK and Europe, but also across the Atlantic,
where the band enjoyed great success on the alternative
scene, despite their refusal to attend any interview.
Both Barlow and Gibbons are famously media shy. The
band’s second, eponymous, album followed three
years later, with a live album recorded at New York’s
Roseland Ballroom with a thirty-five piece orchestra
released in 1998. Since then, the band members have
been taking an extended break, with Barlow working on
new songs for Portishead, and Gibbons working on this
project.
Written and recorded with former Talk Talk Paul Webb,
Out Of Season is everything but a variation
on Portishead. Webb and Gibbons met long before the
singer joined the band, while Webb was auditioning for
a singer for his band, O’rang. The idea of collaboration
between the two friends came up at the end of the last
Portishead tour. With very little material to work on
to start with other than the melody for the beautiful
Mysteries and lyrics for Rustin Man,
the pair developed an approach which lead them to work
with stripped down soundscapes, emphasising entirely
on Gibbons’ voice and interpretation.
Unanimously recognised as one of the finest piece of
song writing in British music history, Mysteries,
which opens the album, is a delicate pop song built
around a simple guitar line on which Gibbons’
voice blows a gentle breeze. Defining the timeless character
of this album, the song is a haunting reflection on
personal beliefs and destiny as Gibbons almost whispers
‘And when the timebell blows my heart / And I
have scored a better day / Well nobody made this war
of mine’. Carrying the same melancholic views
on existence and depicting distorted love stories and
lives, the rest of the album retain the same intrinsic
characteristics all the way through. Very often using
elements of nature and passing time as metaphors to
emphasise on the down-to-earth atmosphere of the music,
the duo elaborate rarely on the simple, acoustic, arrangements,
only once reaching for dramatic effect, on the stunning
Funny Time Of Year. Starting with just an acoustic
guitar to support Beth’s fragile voice, the track
slowly builds up to a magnificent coda. Perhaps the
closest to the ambience of Portishead, and at the same
time the furthest away, Funny Time Of Year
presents this album with its most poignant moment.
Reminiscent of the poetry of a Nike Drake, Out Of
Season is totally unique, and most definitely out
of time. A very strong piece of work, this album will
be remembered as a milestone in Gibbons' career.
5/5 |
