Portishead's Beth Gibbons Announces Debut Solo Album 'Lives Outgrown' And Summer European Tour
Wednesday, 07 February 2024
Written by Jon Stickler
Photo: Netti Habel
Beth Gibbons has announced her debut solo album.
Recorded over a period of 10 years, 'Lives Outgrown' will finally arrive on May 17. The lead singer and lyricist for British band Portishead co-produced it with James Ford, with additional production by Lee Harris of Talk Talk.
A decade in the making, Gibbons revealed back in 2013 that she'd signed a solo deal with Domino Records. The result is some of her most personal work to date, following a period of reflection and "lots of goodbyes." Explaining the inspiration behind the record, she continued:
"I realized what life was like with no hope. 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.
"People started dying. 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. Now I’ve come out of the other end, I just think, you’ve got to be brave."
Alongside news of the LP, Gibbons has shared the lead single, Floating On A Moment, a folky, atmospheric track that comes with a trippy video directed by Tony Oursler, who helmed David Bowie's Where Are We Now? video. He said:
"When I first heard Floating On A Moment it literally transported me from place to place, filling me with kaleidoscopic emotions and visions. 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."
The news follows sporadic releases from Gibbons since the last Portishead studio album, 'Third', arrived in 2008. In 2019, she put out 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs', a recording of the Henryk Górecki symphony, performed with Krzysztof Penderecki and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, she guested on the 2022 Kendrick Lamar song Mother I Sober.
Gibbons has also scheduled a UK and European tour for the summer, which features stops in London, Manchester and Edinburgh in June. Tickets go on general sale at 10am local time on February 16.
'Lives Outgrown' tracklist:
1. Tell Me Who You Are Today
2. Floating on a Moment
3. Burden of Life
4. Lost Changes
5. Rewind
6. Reaching Out
7. Oceans
8. For Sale
9. Beyond the Sun
10. Whispering Love
Beth Gibbons Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows
Mon May 27 2024 - PARIS SALLE PLEYEL (France)
Tue May 28 2024 - ZURICH Theater 11 (Switzerland)
Thu May 30 2024 - BARCELONA Parc del Forum (Spain)
Fri May 31 2024 - LYON La Bourse Du Travail (France)
Sun June 02 2024 - BERLIN Verti Music Hall (Germany)
Mon June 03 2024 - COPENHAGEN Falkoner Salen (Denmark)
Wed June 05 2024 - UTRECHT TivoliVredenburg (Netherlands)
Thu June 06 2024 - BRUSSELS Cirque Royal (Belgium)
Sun June 09 2024 - LONDON Barbican Centre
Mon June 10 2024 - MANCHESTER Albert Hall
Tue June 11 2024 - EDINBURGH Usher Hall
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