SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BETH GIBBONS – LIVES OUTGROWN

BETH GIBBONS
LIVES OUTGROWN
DOMINO RECORDS

There is something ethereal to Beth Gibbons’ voice, the distinctively haunting quality that made the trip hop genre such a fitting home for it and had helped launch her band Portishead into global success. Now it leaps genres into the baroque folk of Lives Outgrown, we really are exposed to the chilling magnificence of her vocals on soaring instrumentation. This debut solo album, supported by the versatile talent of veteran drummer Lee Harris and producer James Ford, is a victorious testament to her voice being amongst the most important in modern music history – both lyrically and sonically.

The dichotomy of light and darkness is a focal point across the album, as we see all the different forms in which change manifests. “Lost Changes” is a waltz through the seasons of change, the glimmering strings accompanied by soothing backing vocals and whistling. By contrast, the more abrasive “Rewind” is closer to the darker textures of psychedelic and desert rock, with Gibbons taking the role of an ominous messenger amidst chaos – we have come ‘too far to rewind’. The rapid shifts in tone are powerfully treading the line between the personal – her own experience of loss and hopelessness over the past decade – and the existential, a collective despair as nature dies around us all. We are constantly exposed to harrowing truths interwoven through Gibbons’ poetic gift as a songwriter, drifting in the Odyssey-like ocean created by its off-kilter production, and are left wondering if we can ever find hope again in this mortal coil.

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