Beth Orton review – battered optimism from an artist making the best music of her career
Concorde 2, Brighton Drawing almost entirely from her last two albums, and backed by a band rooted in jazz and experimentation, Orton performed her emotionally fraught songs to a rapturous crowd The audience at Brighton’s Concorde 2 largely look old enough to have first encountered Beth Orton’s music three decades ago, as it wafted around a smoke-filled living room in the post-club small hours. That was the primary…
Key points
- Beth Orton performed at Concorde 2 in Brighton, drawing almost entirely from her last two albums.
- The set avoided her early hits, except for the title track from 1999's Central Reservation.
- The crowd responded rapturously, with the reviewer calling it the best music of her career.
Beth Orton performed at Concorde 2 in Brighton, drawing almost entirely from her two most recent albums: this year's The Ground Above and 2022's Weather Alive. The audience, largely old enough to have first heard her music three decades ago, might have expected nostalgia, but the set avoided the songs that made her famous.
The only exception was the title track from 1999's Mercury-nominated Central Reservation. The reviewer describes the show as the work of an artist in her mid-50s making the most adventurous and fascinating music of her career.
A band rooted in jazz
Orton spent most of the gig seated behind a keyboard rather than playing guitar. Her band included bassist Tom Herbert and pianist Sam Beste, players rooted in jazz and at home at London's Cafe Oto.
The reviewer singles out Christos Stylianides's trumpet as the key instrument on stage, its breathy tone shifting from colouration reminiscent of the late Jon Hassell to densely effected gusts of white noise.
an artist in her mid-50s making the most adventurous, fascinating music of her career
— The Guardian reviewer
Emotion and optimism
Songs such as the title track of The Ground Above and Cigarette Curls moved between ambient synth, jazz, drum'n'bass and dubbed-out abstraction. The reviewer notes much playing with Orton's voice, amping up its huskiness and fragility until her singing sounds like another instrument in the mix.
The lyrics, when audible, are emotionally fraught in a middle-aged way: sleepless nights, the passing of time, sickness and loss. The set closer Otherside nonetheless gathers itself into a battered but anthemic optimism, Orton's voice becoming soulful and full-throated.
