Over the last 30 years, Beth Orton has resisted easy categorization, writing rich, sensitive songs that match her acoustic affinities and world-weary voice with bubbling electronic textures. This resistance has always been a confident feature of her music.
Weather Alive is Orton’s first album in six years, following 2016’s Kidsticks. She issued the latter shortly after returning to England from Los Angeles, where she’d lived for a harried two year. She thought she was through with the music industry for good, until she bought a charming old piano at London’s Camden Market. Its resonant tone beckoned her to write again, chasing nothing but her own satisfaction.