Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 13/02/06
Label: EMI

Ten years after her "Trailer Park" debut and the chill-out queen seems to have turned, well, just plain chilly on this, her fourth album, recorded with revered Sonic Youth / Wilco dude Jim O'Rourke. Insouciance has always been Orton's calling card but it's telling that now, even on what is being promoted as a nakedly emotional album, she comes across as someone who's been forced to get out of the bath to answer the phone.

"I wanted to love and I turned round and hated it", she snaps on "Heartlandtruckstop". She scoffs in the face of her vulnerability: "I think I'm going to cry but I'm gonna laugh about it all in time" ("Shopping Trolley"). Even her most impassioned moment - "Heart of Soul"'s "C'mon, put a little love in your heart" chorus - has the ring of a taunt. Boy, is she brittle. Every musician is allowed to let age and emotional bruising colour their work, but you do find yourself missing the old Norfolk nymph - blowing her fringe out of her eyes, ramming her thumbs into the belt-hooks of her jeans and gazing into the sunrise.

Jim O'Rourke's production, however, lends a warm, affable 'campfire tapes' feel to even the slimmest, coolest of tracks. A stripped-down production, sparse arrangements (Orton on guitar, piano and harmonica; O'Rourke on bass, piano and marimba), and recorded quickly, in analog and with minimal overdubs: this is a confident move away from the period when she was muse and collaborator of choice for hip beats merchants such as Chemical Brothers and Red Snapper. Certainly the artists who spring to mind here are American indie folk-rockers of the fair trade coffee variety - peers such Josh Rouse (e.g. soulful, upbeat opener "Worms") and Laura Veirs (the wordy "Heartlandtruckstop").

Orton's arresting Carole King tones and her lyrics remain as strong as ever: she's witty, playful, and mistress of the trenchant image ("My head's so low I'm kicking it as I walk down the road" - "Shopping Trolley"). Yet neither O'Rourke's masterly hand, nor Orton's obvious intelligence can disguise the fact that fifty per cent of this latest opus is mumbly, bumbling musings and that nothing here matches the melodic highs of her first two albums. Indeed, were she to attempt to deliver the dreary, downy-soft "Safe In Your Arms" and "Feral" in a provincial open mic night (or even early stomping ground the Heavenly Social), nobody present would deem it necessary to end their mobile phone conversation.

From the front cover oil painting of a rainbow, right through to the forlorn closing piano notes, "Comfort of Strangers" is a tasteful offering from an accomplished musician. It just sounds like she cannot be roused to feel very passionate about anything. A feeling many listeners will identify with.

    by Anna Britten