Beth Gibbons of Portishead has announced her first solo endeavor, Lives Outgrown, set for release on May 17, 2024. This album emerges as her most intimate project yet, born from a time rich in introspection and transformation. Beth describes it as a period marked by “lots of goodbyes” — parting ways with family, friends, and even aspects of her own identity.
“I realized what life was like with no hope,” says Beth. “And that was a sadness I’d never felt. Before, I had the ability to change my future, but when you’re up against your body, you can’t make it do something it doesn’t want to do.”
Lives Outgrown distills the quintessence of life’s meridian, when the horizon of the future ceases to proffer the comfort of the known, and the rearview mirror of the past reveals itself with an unprecedented lucidity. Gibbons thoughtfully explores the realms of motherhood, the spectre of anxiety, and the seismic shifts of menopause, which she characterizes with a lyrical frankness as both “a massive audit” of one’s life and “a massive comedown.” The humbling theme of mortality emerges, a leitmotif as inevitable as it is profound.
In Floating On A Moment, Gibbons’ expressive voice, extraordinary as ever, has been softened by time. Her performance now wields a power in wisdom and experience – her signature croon serving as a beacon- and lullaby – for those beginning this passage of life themselves.
“People started dying,” says Beth. “When you’re young, you never know the endings, you don’t know how it’s going to pan out. You think: we’re going to get beyond this. It’s going to get better. Some endings are hard to digest.”
Emerging from this decade of change and realignment,however, has left Beth with what feels like a renewed purpose. “Now I’ve come out of the other end, I just think, you’ve got to be brave,” she says.
Tony Oursler’s involvement in directing the video for Floating On A Moment adds a significant layer of artistic depth to the project, given his reputation as a multi-media artist and director on Bowie’s video for Where Are We Now?. Oursler is renowned for his innovative use of video, sculpture, and performance to create immersive, multimedia experiences.
“When I first heard Floating On A Moment it literally transported me from place to place, filling me with kaleidoscopic emotions and visions,” says Oursler. “If possible, I wanted to capture that psychic liquid in this video. Beth’s work is so powerful it can lead us through life’s forests and fires, revealing glimpses of possible futures. With a voice and music like that I knew we had to make images which are open, somehow speculative.”
Watch the video below:
Featuring ten beautiful new tracks recorded over a period of ten years, the album was produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, The Last Dinner Party) and Beth Gibbons with additional production by Lee Harris (Talk Talk).
In addition to Beth’s work with Portishead, her Out Of Season album with Rustin Man (2002) and the recording of her performance of Górecki’s Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs (2014), she has most recently been heard collaborating with Kendrick Lamar on 2022’s Mother I Sober from his Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers album.
Lives Outgrown will be available on the following formats: Standard LP, Deluxe LP (Tip-on Gatefold sleeve, heavyweight vinyl, 4 page booklet, 12 page A5 studio scrapbook), Standard CD and Deluxe CD (casebound book). Purchases from DominoMart & bethgibbons.net come with a signed postcard!
Tracklist
- Tell Me Who You Are Today
- Floating On A Moment
- Burden Of Life
- Lost Changes
- Rewind
- Reaching Out
- Oceans
- For Sale
- Beyond The Sun
- Whispering Love
Beth will return to the live arena to perform the following concerts in the UK and Europe in May and June.
Tickets will be available from Beth’s website.
- 5/27: La Salle Pleyel – Paris
- 5/28: Theater 11 – Zürich
- 5/30: Primavera Sound Festival – Barcelona
- 5/31: La Bourse Du Travail – Lyon
- 6/02: Uber Eats Music Hall – Berlin
- 6/03: Falkonersalen – Copenhagen
- 6/05: Tivoli Vredenburg (Main Hall) – Utrecht
- 6/06: Cirque Royal – Brussels
- 6/09: The Barbican Centre – London
- 6/10: Albert Hall – Manchester
- 6/11: Usher Hall – Edinburgh
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