Amazon.co.uk Review
Having collaborated with such dance acts as
Red Snapper and the
Chemical Brothers, singer-songwriter Beth Orton is sometimes regarded as a young folky hitching a ride on the electronica bandwagon. On
Trailer Park, however, she harks back to a lost Seventies tradition whose exponents included
Traffic,
Tim Buckley and especially
John Martyn, all of whom worked in a hazy interface between jazz, blues and folk. Fleshed out with multiple layers of vibes, strings and keyboards,
Trailer Park is at once a soul-searching and sensual album, with Orton's flat-edged and indistinct lyrics often seeming to melt in her own mouth. Only "Sweetest Decline", featuring
Dr John on keyboards seems slightly twee. Otherwise on the likes of "Couldn't Cause Me Harm" and "Feel To Believe", the pleasures and pains of love are conveyed so tangibly it almost hurts. --
David Stubbs