New Music Reviews: The Decemberists and Beth Gibbons

Two veterans this week. Portland literate folk-rockers The Decemberists are back with their ninth album while Portishead’s Beth Gibbons releases her first solo album.

The Decemberists

As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again

2024, 7.5/10
The Decemberists’ ninth album came after a six-year wait. It perhaps wasn’t surprising, given the COVID pandemic. Leader Colin Meloy has also pursued a career as an author. Meloy explained to Variety that “there’s so much Decemberists music in the world, and I’m a little shy to put more of it out there because I don’t want to overstay our welcome.”

The Decemberists’ early albums, in the first decade of the twenty-first century, delivered folk-rock with big concepts. In the next decade, they branched out to different genres like Americana and synth-pop, while simplifying their songs. Their newest record is like a retrenchment of their early work, back to the big ambitions. Meloy based the double album’s approach of four themed sides on Hüsker Dü’s Zen Arcade.

The record opens with the catchy ‘Burial Ground’, a collaboration with The Shins’ James Mercer. ‘America Made Me’ recalls the playful tunes from 2005’s Picaresque.

The band’s folk influences are more pronounced than they’ve been for ages, like ‘Long White Veil’ and ‘The Reapers’, evoking a pre-industrial America. The twenty-minute closer ‘Joan in the Garden’ is the most ambitious piece, surprisingly hard-edged and dissonant at times.

As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again is a grand summation of The Decemberists’ career. It would make a fitting finale, although hopefully more will come.

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Beth Gibbons

Lives Outgrown

2024, 8/10
Former Portishead vocalist Beth Gibbons isn’t prolific. Dating back to Portishead’s classic 1994 debut Dummy, there have only been five records of original material with Gibbons on lead vocals. Lives Outgrown is Gibbons’ official solo debut. She previously collaborated with Rustin’ Man (Talk Talk’s Paul Webb) on 2002’s Out of Season.

This time she’s working with another Talk Talk alumni, drummer Lee Harris. Producer James Ford is known for his work with the Last Shadow Puppets. He provides Gibbons with an intimate sound, coaxing subtle textures from an array of instruments from bass clarinet to hammered dulcimer.

Gibbons has never worn her heart on her sleeve like this before. Lives Outgrown chronicles a woman in her late 50s, working through menopause and losing loved ones.

“I realised what life was like with no hope and that was a sadness I’d never felt. People started dying. 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. Now that I’ve come out of the other end, I just think you’ve got to be brave.”
Beth Gibbons

Lives Outgrown is autumnal, sometimes bleak. It’s often reliant on Gibbon’s vocal prowess. Her vocals are still distinctive, sumptuous yet raspy. She brings beauty, navigating tracks like ‘Oceans’.

It’s more diverse than you might expect – ‘Beyond the Sun’ is surprisingly energetic, with some of the orchestral dissonances of later Talk Talk records. Closer ‘Whispering Love’ is gorgeous, with its bass clarinet, like Vashti Bunyan’s elegant 21st century records. Lead single ‘Floating on a Moment’ recalls Portishead’s trip-hop, but more restrained and adult.

Gibbons’ discography is so small that any addition is welcome, and Lives Outgrown is an elegant portrait of middle age.

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