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Comfort of Strangers

Beth Orton - Comfort of Strangers Audio CD

A fair review of the Beth Orton "Comfort of Strangers" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Beth Orton reviews here, or go back to the Beth Orton tabs.

Band: Beth Orton
Title: Comfort of Strangers
Rating:

Release Date: 2006-02-07
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Worms 2: Conceived 3: Comfort Of Strangers 4: Heartland Truckstop 5: Shadow Of A Doubt 6: Safe In Your Arms 7: Countenance 8: Rectify 9: Feral Children 10: Shopping Trolley 11: A Place Aside 12: Absinthe 13: Heart Of Soul 14: Pieces Of Sky

muddy sound
I find it hard to listen to this album due to the muddy sound. I really like Beth Orton, even if she's not doing anything different than before. It sounds like one big demo and I find it to be really annoying. I want to fiddle with the volume on my computer even though I know it's not my speakers, but the album itself. I;d love to hear a remastered/cleaned up version.
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Worth Your Effort And Replays!
It has not only become my favorite Beth Orton album, but one of my favorite albums, period. It took me putting the album on a shelf (figuratively) for quite some time until I had the urge to return to it and allow it to slowly envelope me.

The musical and artistic change did confuse me at first, as it did most people - it just seemed so drastic. When I was formulating an amazon review in my head years ago, I had a much lesser opinion that drew from the nature-y and very green artwork and lyric content. Listening to the album then, for me, felt like I was being buried in soil in the afternoon - warm, but also claustrophobic.

Now I no longer view the album like that, but more as a celebration of life, even with its faults. This is best represented in moments like the drum-shuffling title cut, the bright and groovy "Conceived", the rollicking "Shopping Trolley" and "Heart Of Soul", which must be a blast to clap and sing-along to in concert. She is also lyrically playful and witty as in "Heartland Truckstop" where she sings, "We're all bridge builder's daughters, with incestuous dreams, confidentially speaking all is at it seems. " Another example is in the first words that open up the album when she sings, "Worms don't dance, they haven't got the balls. " Her backing band is tightly behind her every move, as on the intense "Shadow of a Doubt" and the slow-builder "Safe In Your Arms"; the latter may very well be the best track of the album and gives me goosebumps every time it begins. Beth also enraptures her listeners with the stark acoustic numbers "Absinthe", "A Place Aside" and "Feral" which are startling in their naked honesty. All of the tracks rank among her best songs and I never seem to tire of hearing them over and over. This probably comes unexpectedly from their short length, as well as the album's short playing time over all; just more proof that less can be more to make a very lean product.

The one valid quibble people have about the album is that on CD is that, although very dynamic in audio range, it is somewhat muffled and quiet. It has taken me some time to get past this, as I recognize it was obviously mixed to be this way. I also will admit that, although I am very anti-LP, it does seem to sound the best in that medium, as if that was intentional as well.

The album is an absolute breath of fresh air for Beth's catalog and the exact kind of switch she needed after the very stagnant DAYBREAKER. Anyone who truly enjoys an artist needs to respect and expect their growth as singer-songwriters, because where's the fun in hearing the same old thing again and again?

I commend you, Beth, and eagerly await your next release; I hope you continue down the same path and explore any musical ground you feel like trudging through.

I only listen to it unintentionally...
Despite multiple listens, these songs are just not growing on me in the way that all of Orton's other albums that I own did. Comfort of Strangers sits next to all my other Beth Orton albums in my iTunes playlist (Trailer Park, Central Reservation, Daybreaker), and it never gets listened to unless I do a listen-through of Central Reservation and then forget to switch to something else once Comfort of Strangers follows. Even Daybreaker, which I found originally to not be as captivating as Central Reservation, is well-loved by this point.

A wonderful cd ...........
To me, this is an excellent cd, with many exceptional tracks. I've listened to this cd 3 times now, and each time I take away a little bit more. My favorites are Rectify, Conceive, Comfort of Strangers, Shopping Trolley and Heart of Soul.

These tracks are expressive and compelling, to me. And her voice really works on them. I'll have to go back and give worms another try, since the song doesn't do much for me as of this writing. I really love the vulnerability in her voice, though for some it comes across as whiny. Not for me. I think she's great, and I'm really enjoying her more organic style.

This album will creep up on you
I liked some of the songs right off: worms, place aside, safe in your arms; I was definitely prone to skipping around a lot. I got this album from a friend who told me that it was one of those albums that had really gotten under his skin, and that I had to listen to it a few times to give it a chance. As I kept listening, though, I started to see new things in almost all of the songs and the album as a whole really started to get to me. Her lyrics are incredible, phrasing things that I had felt but hadn't been able to articulate, and she has a particular way of emphasizing the important things with subtle vocal changes, like the repeated lines at the end of pieces of sky: "there's so many people who need to know that you're still with them even when they don't know" and her voice rises and almost cracks on the 'you're'. In contrast to the sort of numb feel of the rest of the song, it highlights the desperate attempt to accept that it's over and time to move on. I find myself doing that a lot with this album, analyzing little things. . . and I recommend it to pretty much anyone who likes that kind of thing, especially someone trying to come to terms with their own complicated relationship issues (which, really, is most people).

You can see a complete list of all Beth Orton discography, or go back to the Beth Orton tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.