The Pop Corporation

Beth Gibbons is one of the good ones. Never needlessly hurried, she’s made incredible music with Portishead, and of course, she’s done other work like the folkie numbers with Rustin Man and Paul Webb.

Well, she is back again with her debut solo LP ‘Lives Outgrown’.

“As usual it reflects what’s been going on with me internally, my 50s have brought forward a new yet older horizon,” she said in a letter. “It has been a time of farewells to family, friends and even to who I was before, the lyrics mirroring my anxieties and sleepless nighttime ruminations, hence ‘Lives Outgrown.’ Not just because of the way we travel through emotional or psychological transitions in our lives but relating more to the time we leave this planet and our motion into the unknown. Something I fear but just need to try and celebrate as a moment approaching, gifting the ability to grow beyond the restraints of this physical world.”

“The sound was also a process, exploring structures within my own personal capabilities. I wanted to draw away from breakbeats and snares, focusing on the woody fabric of timbres away from the sugary addiction of high frequencies that satisfy like sugar and salt.”

There’s no official date for this new album, but fans will wait. We don’t push Beth Gibbons to release music – we patiently sit tight and see what she’s been cooking up.

Here’s the letter. Hasn’t she got lovely handwriting?