Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man, Out Of Season (Go Beat/Universal UK) 9+
It's been far too long since the last Portishead album, and a crime to keep the talents of chanteuse Beth Gibbons away from the public ears for that long. Fortunately, she had made a lasting impression on former Talk Talker Paul Webb (aka Rustin' Man) when she auditioned for his post-rock band O'Rang in 1990. Out Of Season has little in common with Portishead or O'Rang. The instrumentation is brittle, spare chamber music, focusing on Gibbons' remarkably versatile vocals which evoke, among others, Sandy Denny, Joni Mitchell ("Show"), and Billie Holiday ("Romance"). The album starts with the aching, fragile lullaby of "Mysteries." Background vocals softly coo alongside a gingerly picked acoustic guitar. A deceptively slight beauty, it might be the best song on the album. "Tom The Model" is by far the showiest tune, with Gibbons belting out a chorus over a bevy of horns. A somber piano, flute and unobtrusive cello propels "Show," and Gibbons' quietly devastating vocal performance. "Sand River" brings to mind Nick Drake's autumnal folk ballads, while "Drake" directly pays tribute to him. While on the surface Out Of Season is a folk album, it also evokes timeless music from nearly every decade, from Frank Sinatra to Chet Baker and Nina Simone. Hm, folk that transcends folk. That would put it in the league of Tim Buckley and Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, no kidding.
