Since the beginning of her career, much has been made of the timelessness of
Beth Gibbons' voice. Rightfully so: the sultry, anguished depth she brought to
Portishead's music didn't just evoke bygone greats like
Billie Holiday -- it sounded wise beyond her years. When she wove British folk traditions into her
Rustin Man collaboration
Out of Season, it suggested she was removed from temporal constraints entirely. On
Lives Outgrown, however,
Gibbons uses the restless contemplation that has defined her art to confront the fact that life is anything but timeless. Appearing 22 years after
Out of Season and a decade in the making, the album is steeped in the emotional and physical realities of living long enough to bring life into the world and to see it leave. As she ponders midlife's growing consequences, dwindling chances, and fleeting moments of sweetness, the stakes in
Gibbons' music have never been higher. She brings all of these complicated moods together with poetic beauty on "Floating on a Moment," a melancholy yet liberating reminder that now is the only time we have, and on "Lost Changes"' baroque pop reflections on how change is life's only guarantee. As the title suggests,
Gibbons isn't trapped in the past on
Lives Outgrown. When she alludes to
Portishead's "Threads" on "Oceans," sighing "my heart is tired and worn" into a sea of spectral whispers, it feels more like recognition of how long ago those days were than a wish to return to them. Her evolution is as clear as the influence of her previous projects on the opener "Tell Me Who You Are Today," which unites the cinematic tension of
Portishead, the solemnity of
Henryk Górecki's
Symphony No. 3 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs," and the earthy ambience of
Out of Season into an immediate statement of purpose.
Gibbons echoes her weathered voice with a richly textured blend of folk, electronic, jazz, and orchestral sounds that she uses in spellbinding ways. With its dissonant strings and rumbling percussion, "Burden of Life" is half meditation on the passage of time, half horror movie score. Though it's meticulously crafted,
Lives Outgrown is also some of
Gibbons' rawest music. Not coincidentally, its wildest moments are some of the finest. "Rewind"'s glowering desert-folk-metal-psych is an instant standout, as is "Reaching Out"'s simmering, brassy outbursts; both offer vibrant proof that her days as an innovator are far from behind her. Similarly, the darker tone the album takes on songs like the witchy "For Sale" reveals that
Gibbons still isn't in the business of placating listeners, and the pastoral serenity she brings to "Whispering Love" is well-earned. As she explores aging with haunting beauty and resolute honesty,
Lives Outgrown reveals
Gibbons' music is only getting richer as the years pass. ~ Heather Phares
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