Out Of The Darkness

Long-anticipated solo debut from Portishead singer is worth the wait

- Johnnie Johnstone

Thirty years have passed since Portishead’s Dummy, but perhaps even more remarkably, 22 since Out Of Season, Beth Gibbons’ visionary autumnal collaboration with Talk Talk’s Paul Webb (aka Rustin Man). So, what’s she been up to? It would be tempting to guess very little. The only music that has surfaced since 2002 was a typically bleak interpretation of Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No.3, made with Polish film composer Krzysztof Penderecki in 2019. However, the emotional weight in these grooves would suggest she has been preoccupied with more weighty concerns. Lives Outgrown is a deeply personal record – 10 years in the making – conceived during a troubled period of restlessness and self-doubt, during which Gibbons experienced the loss of several people close to her.