I’ll begin this series with Out of Season, the new album by Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man. As usual when I start these kind of projects it is very unclear if there will ever be a second, third, nth part. Probably I won’t even finish the first installment ;-). The idea is to write about one favourite track of a CD or record I have recently purchased. I will not mention the title of the track. Ideally I will write about all CDs I buy from now on. We are going to see if this will work out. An important aspect of this series is the participation of the reader(s). I’d like you to guess which track I am writing about. And maybe to discuss on that track or your favourite track on the album I cover. Enough preliminary words now. Off we go.

I like this song as it doesn’t jump at me. It gives me the choice. Either to ignore it and treat it as background music or to concentrate more on it and delve into its mysteries. Not sure if there are any mysteries actually. I didn’t find them in the lyrics. Which are fine but pretty general and imprecise I find. The song is like a woman without make-up. Who does not ask for my (male) attention. A woman who has got a lot of charm without knowing it or without using it consciously. A discreet unobtrusive woman. Who knows exactly what she wants. Who sings naturally without changing her warm and tender voice.

It starts with a couple of chords played on a guitar. Reminding me of a harp which sounds like the first drops of a small source of a mountain creek coming out of the earth. And is then progressing slowly in the plain like an ever widening river. Flowing past enormous stones embodied by the bass in the riverbed of the drums towards the ocean delta where the women choir singing and stretching „whooo“ almost eternally joins in. This angel’s choir has got a haunting and enchanting quality and is used in almost every song on the album. Sometimes it sounds like a theremin. This is a sad song but it’s not sad as in depressive. It is more self-confident. Strong through its calmness. Emanating an aura of serenity and power. It is the only song on the album which I haven’t played out yet.

As so often with Beth Gibbons and/or Portishead most songs lasted for two or three listens and have already crumbled to dust. They seemed so phantastic on first listen but they exhausted themselves almost immediately. Like a hundred meter runner who tries to sprint a marathon. After a kilometer he drops dead. As so often I am probably exaggerating here. But one thing is for sure. The new Massive Attack album is about a million times more exciting than this.

Tell me in the comments if you know which song this was and if you like it or if you prefer another one on this album.