Sound bite: "Comfort of Strangers"

Beth Orton “Comfort of Strangers” Astralwerks
Records

In 1996, Beth Orton was canonized into the genre of trip-hop
with her debut “Trailer Park,” which established her as
the woman who brought folk-rock sensibility to the burgeoning
electronic generation. Now, at the 10th anniversary of
Orton’s prodigious first album, her new release
“Comfort of Strangers” builds on the more sophisticated
elements of her past endeavors, while simultaneously producing a
sound that is both subtle and spontaneous. On “Comfort of
Strangers,” Orton abandons her earlier emphasis on
electronica and subsequent descent into over-produced Norah
Jones-esque sounds, and successfully recovers with a consistently
strong folk-inspired album. The album moves her closer to the
acoustic sound which she experimented with on 2002’s
“Daybreaker,” as Orton’s characteristically rich
voice sifts through a series of intimately personal observations.
Although the strong percussion and piano-pounding of the opening
song “Worms” could easily be mistaken for any track
from Fiona Apple’s “Extraordinary Machine,”
Orton’s gorgeous, reedy voice and light instrumentation lends
more personality and ingenuity to “Comfort of
Strangers” than to any of her work since her eminent debut.
“Comfort of Strangers” was produced by musician and
composer Jim O’Rourke, recently of Sonic Youth and lauded for
his work on Wilco’s astounding “Yankee Hotel
Foxtrot” and “A Ghost is Born.”
O’Rourke’s able assistance is evident in the cascading
simplicity and increasing maturity of this collection. With Orton
singing the same serene, effortlessly catchy melodies that
characterized “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” O’Rourke
weaves his straightforward aesthetic seamlessly with Orton’s
desire for an unornamented, lyrical album. With a basic ensemble of
O’Rourke on piano, bass and marimba, Tim Barnes on
percussion, and Beth Orton on guitar, piano and harmonica, the
album is straightforward and unadorned, but more than adequately
equipped. Moving far beyond the convoluted production process
associated with “Trailer Park,” the album’s songs
emerged after only two recording takes and were finished off with
minimal editing and few overdubs. The result is an uncomplicated
album that allows Orton to flesh out her underrated status as a
songwriter, as the complexities of her lyrics foreground the
stripped-down acoustics. The album’s best songs are short and
catchy. “Worms,” for example, features a strong
percussion, Orton on the piano, and slightly off-kilter yet
infectious lyrics: “Worms don’t dance, they
haven’t got the balls,” she begins, before launching on
a sarcastic tirade. “Conceived” and “Comfort of
Strangers,” the title track, more closely echo Orton’s
previous oeuvre: comfortable, dark and melodious. But
“Comfort of Strangers” allows Orton’s robust and
““ at times ““ straining voice to stand out remarkably
against the hushed backdrop of flitting percussion and lilting
piano chords, exemplifying the album’s stark simplicity. Many
songs feature hypnotic arrangements with little more than
Orton’s plucked guitar arpeggios and voice, such as
“Safe In Your Arms,” which gradually adds other
instruments, building to a graceful conclusion. “Heart of
Soul” hums along until Orton breaks the monotony with rough,
impassioned vocals: “I want to put a whole lot of love in
your heart,” she sings, with a fitting Led Zeppelin
reference. Further emphasizing its no-frills sound, the album
finishes with arguably its best track, “Pieces of Sky,”
in which whispery vocals lull the album to a flawless conclusion,
sustained only by her pedaled piano chords. Beth Orton’s
“Comfort of Strangers” returns as a testament to her
recent penchant for asceticism and renewal ““ a spectacular
and deliciously exposed reappearance that quite possibly outranks
her preceding albums. “Comfort of Strangers” offers a
reinvention of Beth Orton, embodied by flickering instrumentals,
full-bodied lyrics and an extraordinarily mature yet uncomplicated
achievement.

“”mdash; Hae Jung Shin