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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best albums she has done so far, 5 Mar 2006
Pop music has been blessed by numerous female folk minstrels of immense talent: Joan Baez, Janis Ian, Eva Cassidy, Sandy Denny… and of course, Beth Orton, one of the best female singer-songwriters to have emerged from Britain in the last twenty years.It has been a long time coming- four years since Daybreaker- but on the evidence of Comfort of Strangers, it would appear that the time has been well spent. The trip-hop, Massive Attack-esque influences first exhibited on 1996’s Trailer Park are less in evidence here, with her moving towards a straight folk direction. However, songs such as “Worms”, “Comfort of Strangers”, “Conceived” and “Heartland Truckstop” are beautiful in their purity, with her trademark downbeat, world-weary vocals very much in good health and her lyrics as intelligent and introspective as ever. It just feels authentic, as if she is singing from the depths of her soul. In all, Comfort of Strangers is of a calibre that few will be able to match, with her intimate, stark simplicity demonstrating perfectly that substance will always triumph over style. Although the folk/indie/electronica fusion has been replaced by rootsy folk, this is as good as Trailer Park and 1999’s Central Reservation. Definitely worth buying.
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