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Beth Orton
Trailer Park
[Legacy Edition]
(Arista/Legacy)
First Appeared in The Music Box, June 2009, Volume 16, #6
Written by John Metzger
Fri June 26, 2009, 06:30 AM CDT
By merging swirling electronic textures with soft, acoustic folk on her 1996
sophomore set Trailer Park, Beth Orton ignited a movement in Britain, one
that not only swept around the globe like a wildfire but also has rippled
through the indie-folk scene ever since. In truth, Orton merely was extending
the work of Portishead and Massive Attack. Yet, by presenting her songs in a
more accessible fashion, she essentially established a template that allowed the
singer/songwriter scene to remain relevant as well as to reach an up-and-coming
generation of ecstatic rave-kids.
Naturally, countless other artists immediately tried to copy Orton’s moves,
but most of them haven’t come anywhere close to achieving the same level of
magnificence — particularly across the entirety of a full-length affair. Where
many of her followers wound up with albums that felt cold and calculated, the
results of Orton’s efforts were mesmerizing and complex. Throughout Trailer
Park, her melodies were abundant, though, at times, they would slip inside
the haze of her hypnotic grooves, only to change shape and reappear.
Wisely, Orton herself resisted the urge to turn her technique into formula.
Instead, she shifted direction on her subsequent endeavors by alternating
between peeling away and bolstering the various elements that she had combined
in such a seamlessly elegant fashion on Trailer Park. Simplifying her
approach, she swapped the set’s woozy atmospherics for a straightforward blend
of folk and pop that borrowed more from Nick Drake than it did from
John Martyn. Thirteen years later, however, Trailer Park remains her best album, and
it still sounds like a revelation.
Part of the reason that Trailer Park has been so durable is that the
production styles employed by Victor Van Vugt and Andrew Weatherall were as
triumphant as Orton’s carefully crafted lyrics. Placed inside the accompanying
music, Orton’s words gain color and texture, and the moods shift and ooze like
the waxy core of a lava lamp. Tangent, for example, is dark, ominous and
foreboding, while Galaxy of Emptiness is steeped in isolation and
yearning. Both tracks are expansive — 7-minutes and 10-minutes in length,
respectively — but they never for a moment feel bloated.
Orton’s songs cover the familiar ground of love that has been won and lost.
In fact, poetic as they may be, once her impressionistic words are removed from
the cinematic scope of the arrangements that Vugt and Weatherall helped to
concoct, they lose some of their luster, and their flaws begin to creep toward
the surface. Tracks like Someone’s Daughter and Whenever pale in
comparison to the rest of the Trailer Park’s contents. Yet, at the same
time, they also play an important role, refusing to let the endeavor’s
electronic headiness slip into sterilized monotony. There is no doubt that
Orton’s sparse, haunting cover of The Ronettes’ I Wish I Never Saw the
Sunshine wouldn’t be quite so effective if it didn’t stand in such stark
contrast to its surroundings. Instead of merely seeming like a sad, mournful
dirge, Orton’s stark emotional outpouring hits home with crushing intensity.
Throughout Trailer Park, jazzy bass lines and blues-y undercurrents
anchor and warm Orton’s songs, and they dutifully bridge the gaps among her many
stylistic juxtapositions. She might be plunging headfirst into the abyss of her
own heart, searching for a connection on She Calls Your Name, and turning
the tables on a former partner in Sugar Boy. Yet, her music keeps her
centered and focused, not only giving her voice the room it needs to transcend
the modern-day atmospherics but also providing her with the opportunity to
explore the beauty that adjoins the disparate worlds in which she lives.
Capitalizing upon the success of Trailer Park, Orton issued Best
Bit, a four-song EP, the following year. Combined with a slew of B-sides,
the endeavor forms the basis for the latter half of Trailer Park’s
incarnation as a commemorative collection. There’s nothing among the extra
tracks that Orton hadn’t already brought to fruition, but taken in full, the
material further outlines how refined her craft already had become. As solo
selections such as Safety and It’s Not the Spotlight prove, she
already had developed a presence that was commanding and confident. At times,
though, she sounded so much like Natalie Merchant that it might have been
challenging for her to distinguish herself without the accompanying electronic
flourishes that dotted Trailer Park’s terrain.
Orton has yet to find another producer who is as capable of framing her work
as the pairing of Vugt and Weatherall. Nevertheless, with each
subsequent album she has issued, Orton has made improvements to her writing
style, leaving no doubt that somewhere down the road she will conjure another
batch of songs that are as cohesive and captivating as those on Trailer Park. 
Of Further Interest...
John Martyn - And Live...
Natalie Merchant - Retrospective: 1995-2000
Duncan Sheik - Daylight
Trailer Park: Legacy Edition is available from Amazon.
To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
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For UK orders, please
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Trailer Park: Standard Edition is available from Amazon.
To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
Click Here!
For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2009 The Music Box
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