BETH GIBBONS
Lives Outgrown (Domino)
Beth Gibbons – unmistakeable voice of Portishead and Rustin Man, more recently a Kendrick Lamar guest vocalist – has had a tough time mentally and physically over the last decade, which seeps into this autobiographical, emotional debut album. Lives Outgrown vividly reflects on grief and change, with Gibbons dispensing with “rinsed” beats – seeking out found samples after kicking a cardboard box and finding the unconventional sound more pleasing.
This kind of experimentation, it seems, suited Lives Outgrown’s producer James Ford down to the ground. Blurring the lines between experimentation and accessibility, the 10-song result is nothing less than a work of resonating beauty: recent single Floating On A Moment serves as a fine and representative taster of the album, but it’s one which works best if processed from start to finish. Lives Outgrown is heavenly, and positions Beth Gibbons as a creative renegade where many might have seen her as a voice before all else.
words DAVID NOBAKHT
