Beth Orton Weather Alive LP (Clear Vinyl)

Pitchfork 50 Best Albums of 2022 - Rated 23/50!
BrooklynVegan Top 50 Albums of 2022 - Rated 18/50!

"Through the writing of these songs and the making of this music, I found my way back to the world around me - a way to reach nature and the people I love and care about. This record is a sensory exploration that allowed for a connection to a consciousness that I was searching for. Through the resonance of sound and a beaten up old piano I bought in Camden Market while living in a city I had no intention of staying in, I found acceptance and a way of healing." - Beth Orton

Many musicians turn inward when the world around them seems chaotic and unreliable. Reframing one's perception of self can often reveal new personal truths both uncomfortable and profound, and for Beth Orton, music re-emerged in the past several years as a tethering force even when her own life felt more tumultuous than ever. Indeed, the foundations of the songs on Orton's stunning 2022 album, Weather Alive, are nothing more than her voice and a "cheap, crappy" upright piano installed in a shed in her garden, conjuring a deeply meditative atmosphere that remains long after the final note has evaporated.

"I am known as a collaborator and I'm very good at it. I'm very open to it. Sometimes, I've been obscured by it," says Orton, who rose to prominence through '90s-era collaborations with William Orbit, Red Snapper and The Chemical Brothers before striking out on her own with a series of acclaimed, award-winning solo releases. "I think what's happened with this record is that through being cornered by life, I got to reveal myself to myself and to collaborate with myself, actually."

Orton's close collaborators on Weather Alive include Tom Skinner (Sons of Kemet, The Smile) on drums and Tom Herbert on bass, with additional players adding nuance and color to the music: Shahzad Ismaily on guitar, drums, harmonica, bass and Moog, Sam Beste on vibraphone, Francine Perry on synths, and Alabaster dePlume on saxophone.

Beth Orton sings 'Weather Alive,' the title track off her first album in six years, like she's summoning a spirit. Her voice sounds broken and determined, cresting in a chorus that flows with the emotional cadence of an old soul song. Her accompanists follow her lead, setting the mood with a slow-burning drone, textured with Talk Talk's dying-fire sparks of electric guitar and the swelling smoke rings of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. As the music rises against the ragged pulse of her vocals, the English artist, nearly 30 years into her career, constructs an entirely new landscape for her songwriting - a wide-open space that grows stranger and more beautiful the further inside she leads us.

Not just something beautiful, the best album of her career.

Weather Alive nestles into a comparatively hushed, atmospheric blend of acoustic and electronic timbres that's meticulous and nebulous at once.