I’ve seen Beth Orton twice in concert, both times by accident. A happy accident, I hasten to add. The first time was in 1999 and I was in Barcelona for my girlfriend’s 30th birthday. It was the end of September and by chance we were there for La Merce Festival with its famous fire runs, or Correfoc, where the whole of Barcelona goes a bit barking and sets fire to everything. It’s fantastic. We spent most of those days wandering the streets between bars, found ourselves in the Plaça del Rei where Orton was performing under the stars (and fireworks).
Central Reservation had been released earlier that year and she sang songs that I knew like She Cries Your Name, Stolen Car (my favourite of hers), and the brilliant morning after the night before walk of no shame anthem Central Reservation.
The second accidental Beth Orton live experience was at Kaleidoscope Festival in 2018 at Ally Pally (yeah, remember live gigs?). We were really there for the headlining The Flaming Lips, but it was good to hear some of her classic songs again as well as newer ones, unknown to me, released since this 2003 double CD best of compilation.
Arguably it’s a little early in anyone’s career to be issuing a ‘definitive collection’ after only three albums (excluding her debut Superpinkymandy which had a limited release only in Japan). However this collection works because of the quality of Orton’s songs and her fiercely fragile voice, and the variety in these offerings: B sides and rarities, her hit singles, as well as cover versions of John Martyn (Don’t Want To Know About Evil) and Fred Neil (Dolphins). And then there’s her ‘Folktronica’ as the music press labelled it at the time: folkyesque songs with a gentle electronica dub beat underneath. Galaxy of Emptiness, produced by one-time boyfriend William Orbit, is perhaps the best example of this. The combination sounds like it could be a ridiculous mess but Beth Orton (with the production expertise of Orbit) is one of the few artists that can turn this into something sublime.
Best Bits: Stolen Car – the swoopy slide guitar is a headrush every time
Genre: Folk Songstress for the Noughties
Like This, Try This: The sans Orbit folk guitar version of Galaxy of Emptiness
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