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Discography
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I would have to admit, I'm a huge Beth Orton fan. I've written about other musicians that sounds like Orton, but since I haven't don't an article on her, I couldn't make reference to her music. That's going to change because I'm going to do a my guide to Beth Orton now.
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So I'm basically going to tell you about Orton through her discography. Her first record is called Superpinkymandy, which I think she's a bit ashamed of or something. It was only released in Japan and had more of an electronic feel to it, which was mostly because of her boyfriend William Orbit (I don't think they're still together). Orbit is probably best known for the Madonna album, Ray of Light
I guess Beth Orton thought that Superpinkymandy was more of an Will Orbit album that she's left it off her own discography on her website. Two of her songs on this early album made it onto other releases, including "She Cries Your Name" on Trailer Park.
I bought Trailer Park on the strength of her other album, Central Reservation, and I lent it to someone and I've since long lost the album :/ Fortunately, I did have them on MP3 for my iPod. I can't remember which songs were the good one ... I think I really liked "Someone's Daughter". Overall, I don't think I liked the album all that much.
"Stolen Car" is the song that got me interested in Beth Orton. I got the album and was impressed with the single and also "Stars All Seem to Weep", which for the sake of not re-using the cover artwork for Central Reservation, I am including it on her greatest hits CD.
I ended up picking up her EP Best Bit and was kind of surprise that it had a more blues influence. The EP featured Terry Callier, who is somewhat of a cult blues and jazz man. (I've never heard of him, but he sounds a bit like Arthur Alexander).
Her other EP is Concrete Sky which I wanted to include here to showcase her incredibly skinny frame. I think she's also quite tall! The "Concrete Sky" was released about the same time as Daybreaker and features Ryan Adams on guitars and backup vocals. This song was also co-written by Johnny Marr from the Smiths, making it extra special.
Although Daybreaker seems like a departure from her folktronic songs, she did gave the go-ahead to release The Other Side of Daybreaker which I sort of regret buying. The Other Side... features mostly remixes of her songs. I realized that I like her vocals and some of these remixes uses very little of her vocals, and especially in the Roots Manuva remix had mostly Manuva's rap overpowering Orton.
Around the same time, there was a greatest hits CD called Pass in Time. The package did a good job collecting some of her best-known work. Unfortunately, it doesn't contain "Star Guitar", her work with The Chemical Brothers[W♥M], which I'm almost certain everyone knows her from.
Comfort of Strangers is her latest release, and it's an album that I haven't really given a fair listen to. I had ordered it and when it arrived, I discovered that there was apparently a "Limited Edition" version which made me instantly hate the version I already own. Her record company should really do a better job at marketing her Limited Version (trust me, I would much rather perfer the extras and pay a little more - but not too much more).
I enjoyed "Worms" a lot from Comfort, it has some comedic lyrics: "Worms don't dance they havn't got the balls/No matter how do you do/It's just you do thats all... Chickens don't fly but they have got the wings/No matter how hard they try/They bump into things/They're all running around/But their heads on the ground/They got a wish bone where their back bone should've grown"
She'll have a new 2008 album coming out, no details about the title or when it's release. I can guess that it will be very stripped down and more folk. Her recent interview on AOL stated that:
I was never really into dance music.
I tried listening the said-interview on The Interface. It makes you install an aol plugin (to ensure adverts). Then it asks me to upgrade to Windows Media Player 11. I'm gutted that I can't watch this, but I have Windows Media Center and it won't upgrade (nor would I upgrade Windows Media) - AOL really need to get their act together.
01/27/2008 20:10:54
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