Beth Orton - Weather Alive

by Zena Grieg

published: 26 / 11 / 2022

Label: Partisan Records
Format: Select Format

intro

Ethereal and ambient seventh album which was acclaimed over six years from critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Beth Orton

The seventh album by Norfolk actor and singer Beth Orton, ‘Weather Alive’, has just been released. Celebrated as Best Female Performer at the 2000 Brits, following the worldwide acclaim of her first two albums ‘Trailer Park’ and ‘Central Reservation’, her third album ‘Daybreaker’ also reaching the Top 10, Orton has had a difficult time since, not able to work during lockdown, as well as being affected by Crohn’s disease. This new record, self-produced, conceived over six years, is imprinted by a moody, ethereal ambience propelling the songs, prompting reflection and an intense exploration of emotions. Commenting on its genesis, Orton revealed: “I am known as a collaborator and I’m very good at it…. I think what’s happened with this record is that through being cornered by life I got to reveal myself to myself and to collaborate with myself, actually… and not be afraid of my darkness.” Standout songs in this engrossing eight-track collection include: the opener and emotive title track with its plaintive refrain: “It almost makes me wanna cry/The weather’s so beautiful outside”; ‘Friday Night’ with its invocation of Proust: “…we put all the love/That we still have to give”; the synth-driven ‘Forever Young’ with its hypnotic rumination: “In the coliseum/Madness and reason/Laid out with the weight of snow”; the haunting ‘Lonely’ under the piercing shadow of loss and nostalgia; the dissonant ‘Arms Around A Memory’ with its pining reminiscence of the ‘New York City summer streets’ and for a lover to “kiss me deep as you know how; and the cryptic meditation ‘Unwritten’ - “Sifting through that old fall-out/Waiting for the dust to land/I’m gonna throw my cards as far as I can/To know what’s in my hand”- bringing this spellbinding collection to an unwelcome finale. Sonically expansive, brooding, jazz-inflected, this new record by Orton casts a contemporary musical mirror on the dislocation of this shifting time.

Track Listing:-

1 Weather Alive
2 Friday Night
3 Fractals
4 Haunted Satellite
5 Forever Young
6 Lonely
7 Arms Around a Memory
8 Unwritten

Band Links:-

https://twitter.com/beth_orton
https://www.facebook.com/BethOrtonOfficial/
http://www.bethortonofficial.com/
http://www.songkick.com/artists/308960-beth-orton
https://www.instagram.com/bethorton/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xWOwA9yoRanf8fDsNT_YA

Label Links:-

https://www.youtube.com/user/partisanrecords
https://instagram.com/partisanrecords/
https://twitter.com/partisanrecords
http://www.partisanrecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/partisanrecords

Play in YouTube:-

Have a Listen:-

live reviews

London Electric Ballroom, 9/7/2002

English singer-songwriter Beth Orton is back with both a new band and an accclaimed new album 'Daybreaker' . Long term fan Anthony Strutt finds her to be on powerful form at a show at London's Electric Ballroom

favourite album

Central Reservation (2014)

In our 'Re:View' section, in which our writers look back at albums from the past, Anthony Strutt reflects on English singer-songwriter Beth Orton's 1999 album 'Central Reservation', which has just been re-released in a new double CD edition

Trailer Park (2009)