Beth Orton, Trailer Park (Dedicated) 8+
There has been a lot of hype this year about the former English member of Spill. Most of it relates to her "groundbreaking" fusion of folk with trip-hop and drum 'n' bass on her solo debut, Trailer Park. Now perhaps if a hapless reviewer accidentally gobbled some way-expired drugs left over from that one rave back in 1989, I could understand why they'd say that. But all I hear is a folk album heavily influenced by Joni Mitchell. Sure, there are touches of dance rhythms and electronica, but they are little more than superficial touch-ups and background atmospherics and somewhat heavy strings. I repeat, this is folk, not electronica. It is no more innovative than Everything But the Girl's Walking Wounded. In fact, that album was much more successful in achieving a pleasantly homogenized fusion of pop and drum 'n' bass. That said, this is a damn good contemporary folk album. The songs are dark and melancholy, just like my favorites by Tim Buckley and Nick Drake. She sings a bit like Drake, at times, but her voice bothers me a little, reminding me of one of the women in Fleetwood Mac. But I got used to it. I slapped it on a tape with Richard Buckner to give my ex two of the most melancholy albums of 1997.
