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On her stunning sophomore album, Central Reservation, Beth Orton slips free
of the electronic textures that colored her acclaimed 1996 debut, Trailer Park,
stripping her music down to its raw essentials to produce a work of stark
simplicity and rare poignancy. With the exception of a pair of Ben Wait-produced
tracks ("Stars All Seem to Weep" and a remix of the title cut), Central
Reservation rejects synthetic sounds and beats altogether in favor of an organic
atmosphere somewhere between folk, jazz, and the blues; the focal point is
instead Orton's evocatively soulful voice, which invests songs like "Sweetest
Decline" and "Feel to Believe" with remarkable warmth and honesty.
It's a risky move creatively as well as commercially - after all, the club culture was the first to champion Orton's talents - but it pays off handsomely; for all its brilliance, elements of Trailer Park already feel dated, but the new material possesses a timelessness that recalls the best of Nick Drake or Sandy Denny, with a haunting beauty to match. And while much has been made of the melancholy that pervades her music, ultimately Central Reservation is first and foremost a record about hope and survival; its emotional centerpiece, the seven-minute "Pass in Time" (a spine-tingling duet with legendary folk-jazz mystic Terry Callier), grapples with the death of Orton's mother, but its underlying message of healing and perseverance is powerfully life-affirming - her music hasn't merely discovered the light at the end of the tunnel, it's now bathing in it.
Classic is proud to issue this hauntingly wonderful title on LP for the first time using our proprietary 200g Quiex Super Vinyl Profile.
Selections:
1. Stolen Car
2. Sweetest Decline
3. Couldn't Cause Me Harm
4. So Much More
5. Pass in Time
6. Central Reservation (Original Version)
7. Stars All Seem to Weep
8. Love Like Laughter
9. Blood Red River
10. Devil Song
11. Feel to Believe
12. Central Reservation (The Then Again Version)
It's a risky move creatively as well as commercially - after all, the club culture was the first to champion Orton's talents - but it pays off handsomely; for all its brilliance, elements of Trailer Park already feel dated, but the new material possesses a timelessness that recalls the best of Nick Drake or Sandy Denny, with a haunting beauty to match. And while much has been made of the melancholy that pervades her music, ultimately Central Reservation is first and foremost a record about hope and survival; its emotional centerpiece, the seven-minute "Pass in Time" (a spine-tingling duet with legendary folk-jazz mystic Terry Callier), grapples with the death of Orton's mother, but its underlying message of healing and perseverance is powerfully life-affirming - her music hasn't merely discovered the light at the end of the tunnel, it's now bathing in it.
Classic is proud to issue this hauntingly wonderful title on LP for the first time using our proprietary 200g Quiex Super Vinyl Profile.
Selections:
1. Stolen Car
2. Sweetest Decline
3. Couldn't Cause Me Harm
4. So Much More
5. Pass in Time
6. Central Reservation (Original Version)
7. Stars All Seem to Weep
8. Love Like Laughter
9. Blood Red River
10. Devil Song
11. Feel to Believe
12. Central Reservation (The Then Again Version)
