If her group
Portishead had not broken through in 1994 with debut album
Dummy, Beth Gibbons probably would have become the lead singer of
.O.rank, the post-rock project of former
Talk Talk members Paul Webb and Lee Harris. Gibbons did eventually sing as a guest on .O.rank's debut
Herd Of Instinct (1994) and eight years later released the critically acclaimed
Out Of Season with
Rustin Man, Paul Webb's
… alias. After that, things remained mostly quiet (though there was a Portishead reunion in 2008 and a live album by Gibbons with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra was released in 2019). Now there is finally a full-fledged, also much more varied follow-up to the subdued Out Of Season. As musical partners-in-crime this time around - besides star producer James Ford - Lee Harris, who plays drums, percussion and mellotron as well as a whistle in the melancholy highlight Lost Changes. The overall result is equally stunning. Few can sing sadness as beautifully as Gibbons (1965), who with Lives Outgrown not only delivers one of the most beautiful records of 2024, but also answers the question what could have been thirty years ago... (RME)more
