BLACK VINYL

Since the beginning of her career, much has been made of the timelessness of Beth Gibbons' voice. Rightfully so: the sultry, anguished depth she brought to Portishead's music didn't just evoke bygone greats like Billie Holiday -- it sounded wise beyond her years. When she wove British folk traditions into her Rustin Man collaboration Out of Season, it suggested she was removed from temporal constraints entirely. On Lives Outgrown, however, Gibbons uses the restless contemplation that has defined her art to confront the fact that life is anything but timeless. Appearing 22 years after Out of Season and a decade in the making, the album is steeped in the emotional and physical realities of living long enough to bring life into the world and to see it leave. As she ponders midlife's growing consequences, dwindling chances, and fleeting moments of sweetness, the stakes in Gibbons' music have never been higher. She brings all of these complicated moods together with poetic beauty on "Floating on a Moment," a melancholy yet liberating reminder that now is the only time we have, and on "Lost Changes"' baroque pop reflections on how change is life's only guarantee. As the title suggests, Gibbons isn't trapped in the past on Lives Outgrown. When she alludes to Portishead's "Threads" on "Oceans," sighing "my heart is tired and worn" into a sea of spectral whispers, it feels more like recognition of how long ago those days were than a wish to return to them. Her evolution is as clear as the influence of her previous projects on the opener "Tell Me Who You Are Today," which unites the cinematic tension of Portishead, the solemnity of Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs," and the earthy ambience of Out of Season into an immediate statement of purpose. Gibbons echoes her weathered voice with a richly textured blend of folk, electronic, jazz, and orchestral sounds that she uses in spellbinding ways. With its dissonant strings and rumbling percussion, "Burden of Life" is half meditation on the passage of time, half horror movie score. Though it's meticulously crafted, Lives Outgrown is also some of Gibbons' rawest music. Not coincidentally, its wildest moments are some of the finest. "Rewind"'s glowering desert-folk-metal-psych is an instant standout, as is "Reaching Out"'s simmering, brassy outbursts; both offer vibrant proof that her days as an innovator are far from behind her. Similarly, the darker tone the album takes on songs like the witchy "For Sale" reveals that Gibbons still isn't in the business of placating listeners, and the pastoral serenity she brings to "Whispering Love" is well-earned. As she explores aging with haunting beauty and resolute honesty, Lives Outgrown reveals Gibbons' music is only getting richer as the years pass.

A1        Tell Me Who You Are Today   3:52
A2        Floating On A Moment.  5:23
A3        Burden Of Life   3:31
A4        Lost Changes.  5:37
A5        Rewind   4:44
B1        Reaching Out   4:12
B2        Oceans   3:42
B3        For Sale   4:22
B4        Beyond The Sun   3:49
B5        Whispering Love.  6:05