Portishead’s Beth Gibbons debut solo album is worth the 11-year wait

Well, here it is. Lives Outgrown arrives freighted with expectation — Portishead, along with Radiohead, Blur and Massive Attack, were one of the best British bands to emerge in the 1990s — and it doesn’t disappoint.

Anyone bewitched by Dummy — Portishead’s debut album from 1994 — won’t be surprised to hear that this one unfurls its intrinsic beauty slowly. These are songs that have been painstakingly fashioned — probably over many years — but they don’t sound laboured. Some, especially when acoustic guitar is foregrounded, recall the album Out of Season, which she made in 2002 with Talk Talk bassist Paul ‘Rustin Man’ Webb. Others offer a reminder of Portishead’s stately textured sound. All are in service to one of the most distinctive vocalists of her generation.

The soundscape is understated for the most part. Strings and inventive percussion permeate. The latter provides a stark backdrop to Burden of Life. There are unexpected flourishes, such as the presence of a ghostly children’s choir on the eerie Floating on a Moment.

Gibbons has eschewed interviews for this release, but she says the songs are inspired by death, grief and the menopause, and the latter topic informs the troubled Oceans. “Fooled ovulation,” she sings, “but no babe in me.”

She also seems preoccupied with the passing of time and the impermanence of relationships. That’s certainly the case on Lost Changes, one of the most beautiful songs she has put her name to. Over a rich sonic palate, with swirling strings at large, she sings “All that I want you to want me/ The way that you used to/ And all that I want is to love you/ The way that I used to.” On paper, such lyrics seem banal but her delivery renders them special.

Recorded with Talk Talk drummer Lee Harris and ever-busy producer James Ford (whose recent credits include albums from Arctic Monkeys, Blur, Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys), these are songs that burrow deep. As with Portishead — whose last album came out 16 years ago — they are tracks that are built to endure.

The hopeful, pastoral Whispering Love with its flutes and birdsong is a veritable ode to peace and nature as she sings of the “summer sun”, “fallow fields” and “leaves of our tree of life”. It’s the song that finds Gibbons at her most poetic: “Moon time will linger, through the melody/ Of life’s shortening, longing view.”

It’s a key line, one that captures the spirit of this haunting album: yes, life is short, but there’s so much to cherish.