Beth Orton : Weather Alive | Album review

The defining sound of Beth Orton‘s music has nothing to do with genre. The British singer/songwriter has never really been beholden to a specific scene or musical space, her music weaving in and out of big beat electronica and buzzing psychedelia, baroque English folk rock and warmly atmospheric downtempo. Prior to the release of her 1996 debut Trailer Park, Orton collaborated with The Chemical Brothers, and has since found herself in good company, her other collaborators including William Orbit and Fuck Buttons’ Andrew Hung, who lent some sonic treatments and textures to her 2016 album Kidsticks. But Orton’s signature sound is simply that of her own voice, a versatile instrument that conveys both comforting warmth and vast emotional depths alike, seasoned and carrying a certain gravitas ever since the moment most of us heard her sing—a sort of world-weariness and wisdom…