Beth Gibbons has announced details of her debut solo album Lives Outgrown out on Friday the 17th of May 2024. Featuring 10 new tracks recorded over a period of 10 years, the album was produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, The Last Dinner Party) & Beth Gibbons with additional production by Lee Harris (Talk Talk).The video for the wistful and nimble first single ‘Floating On A Moment’ was directed by acclaimed multi-media artist and director Tony Oursler (the man responsible for David Bowie’s ‘Where Are We Now?’ video), watch it below.
Lives Outgrown is Beth’s most personal work to date, the result of a period of sustained reflection and change — “lots of goodbyes,” in Beth’s words. Farewells to family, to friends, even to her former self. These are songs from the mid-course of life, when looking ahead no longer yields what it used to, and looking back has a sudden, sharper focus.
“I realised what life was like with no hope,” says Beth. “And that was a sadness I’d never felt. Before, I had the ability to change my future, but when you’re up against your body, you can’t make it do something it doesn’t want to do.”
Songs also touch on motherhood, anxiety and the menopause (which Beth describes variously as “a massive audit” and “a massive comedown” which “cuts you at the knees”) as well as, inevitably, mortality.
“People started dying,” says Beth. “When you’re young, you never know the endings, you don’t know how it’s going to pan out. You think: we’re going to get beyond this. It’s going to get better. Some endings are hard to digest.”
But emerging from this decade of change and realignment has left Beth with what feels like a renewed purpose. “Now I’ve come out of the other end, I just think, you’ve got to be brave,” she says.
In addition to Beth’s work with Portishead, her Out Of Season album with Rustin Man (2002) and the recording of her performance of Górecki’s Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs (2014), she has most recently been heard collaborating with Kendrick Lamar on 2022’s ‘Mother I Sober’ from his Mr Morale & the Big Steppers album.
Lives Outgrown will be available on the following formats: Standard LP, Deluxe LP (Tip-on Gatefold sleeve, heavyweight vinyl, 4 page booklet, 12 page A5 studio scrapbook), Standard CD and Deluxe CD (casebound book). Purchases from DominoMart & bethgibbons.net come with a signed postcard. UK pre-orders of Lives Outgrown via the official Beth Gibbons store will be eligible for ticket pre-sale, commencing Wednesday the 14th of February at 10am GMT.
The tracklisting for Lives Outgrown is as follows:
1. Tell Me Who You Are Today
2. Floating On A Moment
3. Burden Of Life
4. Lost Changes
5. Rewind
6. Reaching Out
7. Oceans
8. For Sale
9. Beyond The Sun
10. Whispering Love
Beth Gibbons will be performing the following concerts in the UK and Europe in May and June. Tickets will be for sale on Friday the 16th of February, details via Beth’s website.
Monday 27th May – La Salle Pleyel, Paris
Tuesday 28th May – Theater 11, Zürich
Thursday 30th – Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona
Friday 31st – La Bourse Du Travail, Lyon
Sunday 2nd June – Uber Eats Music Hall, Berlin
Monday 3rd June – Falkonersalen, Copenhagen
Wednesday 5th June – TivoliVredenburg (Main Hall), Utrecht
Thursday 6th June – Cirque Royal, Brussels
Sunday 9th June – The Barbican Centre, London
Monday 10th June – Albert Hall, Manchester
Tuesday 11th June – Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Photo credit; Netti Habel
