When British singer-songwriter Beth Orton returned in 2022 with the tremendous Weather Alive, it felt like a revelation. After all, more than two decades had passed since the critical high-water marks of Trailer Park (1996) and Central Reservation (1999), not to mention her memorable appearances on The Chemical Brothers’ Exit Planet Dust and Dig Your Own Hole. Some may have been tempted to write her off.
But Orton has spent the intervening years quietly following her own path, unconcerned with the zeitgeist and focused instead on making luminous and accomplished music that continues to be increasingly emotionally resonant.
Like its predecessor, The Ground Above finds Orton carving out a distinctive space within contemporary music, folding electronic and jazz-inflected rhythms, rich arrangements, and an eclectic instrumental palette into her folk-rooted sound. She has always excelled at writing songs that feel both wide-eyed and world-weary, capturing everyday experience in vivid, imagistic detail while subtly drifting toward something more psychedelic and revelatory. This album is at its strongest when those particular instincts come together.
This is especially true of the sumptuous eight-minute title-track, the slow-burning, slumberous jazz grooves of Cigarette Curls and Love You Right, and the breezy uplift of Waiting. The quieter, more introspective moments are just as effective, exemplified in Before I Knew's dark, pensive spareness, while the closing Otherside emits a sublime, Beatles-esque glow.
Orton’s voice, too, has grown more compelling with age. It now possesses greater character and a deeper sense of lived experience, less stoned folky, more weary savant. It cracks here and there, but in ways that only add soul and realness. There is real pathos in the way she chooses to vocalise, the sound of someone who has endured and emerged with her artistry richer, with a new found sense of depth.
Now more poetic and affecting than ever, Orton continues to go from strength to strength. Across eight beautifully constructed tracks of jazz-inflected folk-rock, The Ground Above is as another mid-career triumph from an artist who seems only to be getting better.
Recommended for fans of: Joni Mitchell, The Weather Station, Aldous Harding, Julia Holter, Beth Gibbons, Mark Hollis.
The Ground Above is out now on Vinyl & CD.
