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We had almost forgotten about Beth Gibbons and her Portishead.
Perhaps it’s the time wasted waiting for the band's new studio work—the last one was five years ago—or the rapid extinction of trip-hop, a genre in which the kids from Bristol were marked as key promoters, but the resignation to relive the splendid atmospheres heard in albums like “Dummy” has long united more than an enthusiastic listener.
Paradoxically, Gibbons could not have chosen a better time to make her solo debut. Now free from the pressures of the press and public, cited as the main causes of their slow production, the singer-songwriter had all the time to find her personal artistic path, creating a work that is both intimate and emotional.
Created in the company of friends such as Rustin Man, aka Paul Webb, former bassist of Talk Talk, and Adrian Utley, also "fleeing” from Portishead, “Out Of Season” has all the charming qualities of being an “off-season” product.
We are indeed faced with 10 songs that, despite being written in the age of full technological exploitation, move wonderfully between folk and jazz atmospheres, at times reminiscent of Billie Holiday, at others paying homage to Nick Drake and Sandy Denny.
The album gains further depth if you consider that Gibbons, while avoiding any reference to the sound typical of her Portishead (even though in some tracks it is inevitable not to breathe a certain atmosphere dear to the Bristol band, forget any kind of electronic interference), manages nevertheless to gift us with ballads of embarrassing beauty and elegance.
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