beth orton - 'mystery'

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beth orton - 'best bit'

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Beth Orton first thing in the morning. Perfect.

beth orton - 'carmella (four tet remix)'

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Have I mentioned how much I love Beth Orton?

beth orton - 'don't wanna know 'bout evil'

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My love affair with Beth Orton's music continues unabated.

beth orton - 'concrete sky'

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When in doubt, Beth is the answer.

beth orton - 'wave'

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Nothing beats Beth Orton. 

beth orton - '1973'

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Most people know that I'm a huge Beth Orton fan and I can't wait for her new album to be released. In the meantime here's her video to the first track from it 1973 and it harks back to the early 90s collaborative work with William Orbit. I like it a lot.

beth orton - 'moon'

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A brand new Beth Orton track, you say? I'm very excited about this and the fact that it precedes a new album 'Kidsticks' too. I know it's going to be one of my highlights of the year.

mark lanegan and beth orton – 'your kisses burn'

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Heavenly Recordings turns 25 this year and to mark the occasion a number of very well-respected artists are collaborating to honour the record label. Here we have Lanegan and Orton covering the Nico/Marc Almond tune and doing it justice indeed.

beth orton - 'i wish i never saw the sunshine'

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Any excuse to play a tune by the incomparable Beth Orton.

beth orton - 'something more beautiful'

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What better way to kick off 2015 on my blog than with Beth Orton.

beth orton covers joni mitchell's 'river'

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Oh boy, that's just beautiful. Have I mentioned before my never-ending love affair with Beth Orton? 

You can listen to the tune here.

beth orton - 'something more beautiful'

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The incomparable Ms Orton with a track from her recent 'Sugaring Season' album.

beth orton -'mystery (nico muhly remix)'

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Beth Orton's ethereal 'Mystery' from the Sugaring Season album has been remixed and exclusively previewed on Stereogum and it's incredibly beautiful. Start the weekend with this and you know that it's good to be alive. You can listen here.

beth orton - 'i, me, mine'

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I think most of my favourite Beatles songs were those penned by George Harrison. I like the exasperation in this tune - written around the time that Lennon and McCartney's egos were clashing constantly in the Let It Be sessions. I have the CD this cover is taken from a Mojo Magazine collection of Beatles covers and of course this is the wonderful Beth Orton.

beth orton - 'something more beautiful'

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Some things are definitely worth the wait. A new Beth Orton album on the horizon makes me a very happy bunny indeed. It's called 'Sugaring Season' and produced by Decemberist, Tucker Martine. Here's the first track released from it. I really have missed her.

beth orton - 'it's not the spotlight'

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Part of the bonus disc on the deluxe version of Trailer Park. 

beth orton

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Female singer-songwriters do seem to get a bad rap.  Maybe I'm just imagining it but the music press does like to repeat the cliche about the market being saturated in a kind of vicious delight that they don't have for male singers, 3-piece guitar bands or geeky male duo dance acts.  As with black hollywood actors, the limit is 3 or 4 at any one time. All the best ones are on the introverted side too, well the British ones anyway and this added resistance of a cynical media can't help. It's saddening and maddening that there might be out there a future Sandy Denny, Kirsty MacColl, Joan Armatrading, Beth Gibbons, Amy Winehouse even and that person just never got the breaks. For all my doom-mongering, there is hope. Laura Marling leads the way. Alison Goldfrapp goes from strength to strength, Florence (from the Machine) and Marina (from the Diamonds) are two sisters that are doing it for themselves and if there is any justice in the world Polly Scattergood will finally get mainstream attention.

My favourite homegrown songstress has to be Beth Orton. There's a simplicity to her songwriting that really speaks to me. That's not to say her tunes and lyrics aren't sophisticated. Quite the reverse in fact and ever since I heard Trailer Park for the first time I knew that here was someone special. The lo-fi folk was a real antidote to the (phoney, at times) Brit Pop phenomena and the ladette culture it spawned in the tabloids. this leftfield approach did afford her the freedom to walk the road less travelled, free from media expectation or undue personal attention. 

Trailer Park is a homage to low rent, white trash America in an endearing Neil Young way. The cover of the Ronettes 'I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine' is a masterpiece in artistic re-interpretation. Simon Cowell take note - if you're going to cover a song then bring something new to the table. Please, no more karaoke.

Central Reservation came 3 years later. The album cover promised music akin to Trailer Park and although it was kind of similar, it started a leaning towards melancholy electronica. Daybreaker, the following year, took this forward and even included guest appearances from such dance luminaries as Four Tet and Chemical Brothers.

Comfort of Strangers, released in 2006 was a retro album and I think if someone hearing all four albums for the first time were asked to place this chronologically, they would put this second. It's a powerfully personal album and there are hints of a loss of innocence that Beth has exhibited in all the previous releases. A new album comes out this year. I'm very curious to see which way this one goes. 

Why this lengthy Beth Orton restrospective, I hear you ask? Well, before seeing a nervous Brighton beat  Peterborough 3-1 earlier today, I went for my obligatory Saturday morning shop at Resident Records. I bought two albums, one is a remix of some pretty amazing dubstep tunes by legendary dub specialist, Scientist. The other album is a kind of best of Beth Orton but I bought it because it includes some new remixes that I felt the need to own.

Albums I've been listening to today: Steve Mason - Boys Outside, Mikkel Metal - Brone and Wait, Black Keys - Brothers, New Order - Brotherhood