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Album Details

• Artist: Beth Gibbons and Rustin' Man
• Album: Out Of Season
• Label: Sanctuary
• Year of Release: 2003
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2003-12-06

I was never a huge Portishead fan. I respected their work and I could see why people made them a huge seller but the combination was just too dark for me. I will say one thing though, I always thought Beth Gibbons had a very interesting voice. Somehow Beth has hooked up with former Talk Talk member, Paul Webb (if you were wondering who Rustin' Man is) and have orchestrated this interesting and quite diverse album. It ranges from smoky jazz tunes to quiet ballads. The album begins with a track called "Mysteries" that is a very appropriate introduction into the next 50 minutes. It almost sounds like a lost folk song sung in almost a Gillian Welch style voice with a haunting backdrop and an acoustic guitar. It is one of the finest moments on the album. "Tom The Model" follows up that track with a track that Janis Joplin would have loved to do. The first moment that you may recognize Beth is on the track entitled "Show". It is close to a Portishead song but instead with all live instrumentation. Then they hit on something that sounds just like a jazz classic, "Romance" sounds as if it could easily be in the Cole Porter library of songs. There are some really interesting experiments on Out Of Season, some good and some not so good. I found that it really got interesting at about the 3-4 listen. That's pretty good for me considering I turned my nose up at Portishead.

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