Out of Season [Enhanced]

Rustin Man, Beth Gibbons | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 5, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: Musicrama/Koch
• ASIN: B0000DESSF
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #896,977 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Mysteries

2. Tom the Model

3. Show

4. Romance

5. Sand River

6. Spider Monkey

7. Resolve

8. Drake

9. Funny Time of Year

10. Rustin Man

Editorial Reviews

Beth Gibbons (Portishead) & Paul Webb (Talk Talk, alias Rustin Mann) release 'Out Of Season' through Polydor. The record is said to be largely acoustic, and in equal parts, romantic, melancholic, inspiring, dark and heart rendering. The album also feature --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beth Gibbons expanded, November 5, 2002

By 

B. Wiley "Humboldt Salmon" (Fieldbrook, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Out of Season (Audio CD)

Don't buy this album expecting Portishead. Gone are most of the elements of trip-hop. Beth Gibbons explores a new set of vocal stylings along with the new accompanyments. There are many moments where the typical Protishead fan would have a hard time recognizing Gibbon's voice. For example, I think she sounds a lot like Billie Holiday on the track "Romance." There are also tracks where her voice (and the mood of the music) remind me of Tori Amos or Karen Carpenter. For those of you who hate any attempt to compare the sound of one artist to another, suffice it to say that this album sounds pretty retro- borrowing from a few different time periods. I love Portishead, but I think I am going to grow to love this album as well (I have listened to it about five times). I think it is definitely worth owning if you have enjoyed Beth's previous works....

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars High, High Art, October 3, 2005

By 

LHB (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out of Season (Audio CD)

In my humble opinion, most of the reviewers below, by focussing on the stylistic aspects of Beth Gibbons' new album, have completely missed the point. Let me add also that I'm one of Portishead's most rabid fans, and that I consider their almost impossible to find "Trip Hop Reconstruction" (differently titled depending on the country of origin--mine's Australian) to be one of the greatest albums ever--along with Dummy, Portishead and Roseland of course. But maybe albums like "Out of Season" should be reviewed both by normal people who can critique them effectively on their purely stylistic attributes, and those who are "damaged" in some way, and who can therefore critique something like this on a more general aesthetic level. Because this album bears comparison with the greatest musical art in western civilization that seeks to encompass the emotions of loneliness, alienation desolation and despair. I'm serious. I recently compared it to Brigit Fassbaender's Schubert "Winterreise," Shostakovich's 14th Symphony, the "Abscheid" from Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde" and Moussorgsky's great "Sunless" and "Songs and Dances of Death" cycles. That's about as good as it gets, and this magnificent album easily belongs in that "elite" company. The songs range from excellent to unbelievable as do Paul Webb's haunting arrangements and accompaniments. But it's Gibbons vocal performance that elevates this into the realm of high, serious art. I've never heard a singer (I'm speaking here solely about the perforance rather than the material) who is able to convey the meaning and essence of what if feels like to be completely, hopelessly isolated from the world. This isn't solitude, it's bleak, stark loneliness.

Lucky for them, most people don't get it. For example, one of the reviewers below describes the dreamy atmosphere of "Sand River" and quotes the lines "Beauty has a hold on me; Autumn leaves, pretty as can be." But the emotional center of the song is in the next two lines, when Gibbons virtually sobs out "Everyone can see, everyone except me." Try to imagine what it feels like when even beauty leaves you behind. Listening to Beth Gibbons will help, if you want to give it a try. I've never heard a vocal performance like this. Gibbon's can float a beautiful note better than just about anyone when she wants to, and when she does so on this album--taken in context--it will tear your heart out. When beauty takes a back seat to truth, as it often must on a work like this, I find myself wondering how someone can get so close to the edge without losing it and falling off. Subtle changes in inflexion, the emphasis she places on certain words, the way she adopts a slightly different tone to suit the mood of each song remind me of what separates something like Maxim Vengerov's shattering performance of Shostakovich's 1st Violin concerto, which literally makes all prior and subsequent recordings of the work superfluous, from other, merely competent performances. You can't describe it without doing it a disservice; this is the truly the kind of music-making that begins where mere words lose their ability to adequately convey the intent of the communicator.

So this album is for everyone who's ever stuck a needle in their arm on a slate gray Sunday afternoon in a filthy flat in some rotten city, who's ever made a serious attempt at drinking themselves to death, who's ever known that "died of a broken heart" can be more than just a metaphor, who has gone a month without even a call from a telephone solicitor, who has ever forgotten how to talk because they've gone so long without speaking to another person, who has loved so hard what they can never love again that they wished they had never loved at all. Each song, in its own way, is like a suicide note from the edge of the abyss, except perhaps for "Rustin Man" which sounds as much like a love song from beyond the grave as you're ever likely to hear. This is not music to make your martini slide down easier, or to use as a soundtrack to your next sexual conquest. It's not easy to listen to, and it might just ruin your day. But make no mistake about it, this is one of the greatest vocal recordings ever made.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Haunting, ethereal..., August 6, 2003

By 

Jimbob (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out of Season (Audio CD)

Portishead's Dummy was one of the nineties most special records -beautiful, swooping torch songs set to an (at the time) fresh and original sounding 'trip-hop' and scratching fusion. And then there was that voice. Beth Gibbons' vocals simultaneously made and destroyed Portishead. She was simply too good for the confines of the project, often sounding like an ingenious sample rather than the inspiring showstopper she really is.

So, here, four years after Portishead's 'difficult' second album, comes Out Of Season, recorded with ex-Talk Talk man Paul Webb. This is stirring, emotionally volatile stuff. Ten simple, elegant folk songs, sparsely arranged, all individual and distinctive with ample room for Gibbons to showcase her talent. At its best, Out Of Season is truly incendiary. The opener Mysteries is at least the equal of Dummy's finest ballad (Roads), while Tom The Model is naggingly catchy without ever coming close to grating. Romance is all Shirley Bassey-kitsch, while Resolve, perhaps the highlight, is utterly heartbreaking.

Highly recommended.