Beth Gibbons returns from the abyss

thefader.com:

Lives Outgrown is an album 10 years in the making after half a century in the ether. The debut solo LP from Portishead frontwoman Beth Gibbons, released six-and-a-half months before her 60th birthday, comprises 10 jaw-droppingly lush tracks, each a condensed saga of its own.

The songs’ astonishing intricacy and immediate impact are testament to the benefits of taking one’s time. Embedded in these chamber-pop symphonies are strange textures (particularly in the percussion) that come from untold hours of playful exploration, both in and outside the studio.

Thematically, too, the record is full of oddly shaped reflective gems, the kind one can only find after making hard-won peace with life’s finitude.

Read Next: Portishead’s Beth Gibbons announces debut solo album a decade in the making “I realized what life was like with no hope,” Gibbons writes in the album’s bio, discussing the trials of her past decade: midlife and motherhood anxiety, menopause, and “lots of goodbyes” to lost loved ones. “That was a sadness I’d never felt.