Portishead's singer finds diverse voice

Beth Gibbons is best known as Portishead's vocalist, her eerie voice narrating the sonic equivalent of a grainy, black-and-white horror film. Her first solo effort, aptly titled Out Of Season, is colored in sepia tones. Rustin Man's acoustic backing adds warmth to Gibbons' somber melodies, which nod to Portishead's dark, otherworldly mood. The album's accompaniment combines traditional orchestration, heavier on slow-moving light-jazz horns, with drifting and interweaving electronic textures that would fit a Radiohead album. This mainly spare and light backdrop brightens the spotlight on Gibbons melodies and vocal style. \nGibbons changes voices with each song like she's putting on different faces, each one evoking a different facet of her self. She is unquestionably one of today's most versatile vocalists, and is as credible singing airy, soft tones with crisp consonants as she is singing warbled notes like a subdued Dinah Washington. Gibbons proficiently uses vocal "imperfections" such as cracks and breaks to add a tender, aching vulnerability to her songs. From an intangible place at once soothing and unsettling, sometime between autumn and winter, Gibbons whispers soft swirls of dried brown leaves, evoking in their wake a paradox of deeply stirring yet disconnected loneliness.