The singer and songwriter of the British trip-hop musical group Portishead, Beth Gibbonsshare new single: “Reaching Out”, preview of their debut album “Lives Outgrown”.
“Lives Outgrown” will include ten songs recorded over ten years, the result of a period of sustained reflection and change: “many goodbyes,” in Beth's words. They are songs from mid-life, when looking forward no longer gives the same results as before, and looking back takes on a sharper and more sudden focus. “I realized what life was like without hope,” Beth says. “And it was a sadness that I had never felt. Before I had the ability to change my future, but when you face your body, you can't force it to do something it doesn't want to do.” And “Floating On A Moment”, the song she presented a couple of months ago, and this new “Reaching Out”, which we can already hear, fit into that universe.
The songs also talk about motherhood, anxiety and menopause (which Beth describes as “a massive audit” and “a massive comedown” that “cuts you in the knees”), as well as, inevitably, mortality. “People started dying,” says Beth. “When you're young, you never know endings, you don't know how it's going to end. You think: let's get through it. Will improve. Some endings are hard to swallow.”
Aside from this new advance, it is worth remembering that Gibbons will make a stop at the Primavera Sound on May 30, the only date in Spain.
“Reaching Out” is accompanied by an interactive video, directed by visual artist weirdcore. The video features 4D mock-ups of Beth free-falling through a kinetic sci-fi spacescape. As the video progresses, Beth's models change to represent the different stages of her life, echoing the “Lives Outgrown” of the album title. By clicking and holding the mouse button, you can interact and rotate the models to give the sensation that they are trying to reach each other in impossible ways. You can see it here.
