KLUDGE

The voice of Beth Gibbons has been forever weaved into a delicate dance of poetic prose and given the label Portishead for quite sometime now. With a grain of strength that is both accessible and thought provoking, her voice is strong and intriguing, sexually enticing and all together innocently devilish. Yet on her latest offering, a solo work with collaborator Rustin Man (Paul Webb of Talk Talk), her attitude is more mature and more fragile. The vocals soar with lyrics that talk of “moments that I enjoy” and ponderings of “mysteries of love where war is no more.”

Out of Season is a timeless collection of touching semi-acoustic melodies awash in a sea of subtle soundscapes that dance along a sonic shoreline. The album flits between seductively scorning pieces such as “Tom the Model” to sweeping ballads, tenderly orchestrated, such as “Show.”

The perfect soundtrack for tears slowly bulldozing tender hairs on cheeks, this album is a tragic piece in celebration of weakness and life. If we were to imagine Gibbons with pad in hand, writing down the minute intricacies of mundane life, we’d find that in the long run the small details paint extreme images of complication. Such is the story of Out of Season: an amazingly chilling album that provides us with something different from the Portishead muses. With Gibbons morphing her voice from the tender folk ballads that open the album, into the dirty lounge voices of late 60’s past the album is a rubber band of change; bending to the will of the listener and proving diverse enough to be accessible, yet focused enough to be succinct.

The simplicity in melody is the true novelty of this album. In an age of super producers and over saturated filler music, grassroots efforts have become all but extinct. Out of Season is nothing short of brilliant and touching. Old Portishead fans may find themselves a bit put off by the scaled down effort, though for those that don’t know the Gibbons name, the album is a pure delight.

7/10

By Peter Menocal