Album Review: Lives Outgrown by Beth Gibbons

The long-awaited debut album from Beth Gibbons shows that our lives never grew out of it.

Courtesy of Domino Recording Co.

Beth Gibbons finally put out her solo debut album, Lives Outgrown, thirty years after Dummy. Out of Season was amazingly good, but you could clearly see and feel Paul Webb’s influence on it. Her LP isn’t really 100% solo either, even though Gibbons is in charge. Webb’s old bandmate Lee Harris co-wrote some songs and, most importantly, plays drums. There’s also producer James Ford, known for working with Arctic Monkeys and Depeche Mode (and some okay British folk-pop bands), who plays a bunch of different instruments.

The beautiful single “Floating On a Moment” already shows you don’t have to worry about the album losing its identity. Every note is full of Gibbons’ personality, and it’s deep and thoughtful without ever being boring for even a second. The five-minute single shows off the weapons of Lives Outgrown: Almost no electronic stuff, lots of instruments, more acoustic, but more art school than fairy tales and campfires.

Gibbons digs herself deeper and deeper into the song and sings with her one-of-a-kind voice that doesn’t seem to have gotten any older: “Not that I don’t want to return.” Throughout the whole album, Gibbons never denies her feelings from a place of weakness but of careful thought and sure wisdom (“Lost Changes”). This isn’t really about her being older, since the singer from Bristol has always been like this. Here, she takes it so far that it’s almost painful to remember how long it’s been since the masterpiece Third came out.

You can already hear Harris’ role clearly in the slow, hymn-like opener “Tell Me Who You Are Today.” With his mostly warm timpani (and different percussion instruments partly made with Gibbons), he sets a perfectly matching, dark foundation for Gibbons. If you compare it to Portishead, he takes on the role of Geoff Barrow, who just wrote the music for “Civil War” and whose occasional music with Beak> is always great. But Gibbons does the Adrian Utley parts herself, so she plays the pretty guitar at the start of “Floating On a Moment.” The three musicians experimented for a long time to make the album’s thick sound. Simple beats and sound waves that break away from Gibbons are gone; the balance of music and vocals is much more old-school than ever before in the singer’s career.

It all took time, and that’s how Lives Outgrown was made over a whole decade. And Gibbons got rid of some sure things, like the theatrical backing vocals in “Burden of Life” that keep raising their hands and then dropping again. “Lost Changes” is a slight weak point with its chorus that loses steam and the verses that don’t fit with the fabulous main idea before the buildup breaks and pours out in a freeing way in the second half.

This is criticism at a very high level because Lives Outgrown isn’t a flat, aesthetically calm thing resting on Gibbons’ voice. It’s not just full of ideas, but those ideas are used in different and smart ways. “Rewind” makes you think of “There There” and rumbles in a similarly awkward and creepy way through the forest, using an instrument the musicians couldn’t name but that sounds like a barking upright bass on rubber bands.

The second single, “Reaching Out,” even has a fast mid-tempo, builds up much pressure with horns in the chorus, and even has some sharpness. Beth’s voice still rises above everything and shows how well it can adapt and take over the whole album, like in the pitch-black “Oceans” painted by deep strings, which is a great pop song at its heart. Gibbons stands behind every line in a tangible way until the very end and never goes too far but always feels at the edge.

All of this comes together in the highlight “For Sale,” where Gibbons asks more and more strongly: “Just ask yourself/Would you choose love/Like me?” while a dramatic, thick orchestration plays, full but not overloaded with strings. It’s catchy and challenging at the same time, but it’s a great piece of music. “Beyond the Sun” is almost as good, with Ford pulling out half of European music history in instruments from Farfisa to cello to dulcimer, while Harris is at his best and Gibbons is desperate about her own betrayal and bad choices that she’d probably make again. Listening to this is risky, and only the closer “Whispering Love” doesn’t make you think of bad things, but it’s too sweet in the first half before creaking and bird sounds open up the song.

Great (★★★★☆)

Favorite Track(s): “Floating On a Moment,” “Oceans,” “For Sale”