Beth Gibbons releases new single + video “Reaching Out”
New single “Reaching Out” available now
Debut solo album Lives Outgrown out on Friday 17th May 2024
Watch the Weirdcore-directed, interactive video HERE
UK and European tour dates announced
“It’s a joy to hear the Portishead star’s sublime voice threaded through a beautiful, unpredictable folk song after a decade away.” Observer
“To hear Gibbons’ serene vocals…in any form is a delight, but it’s the inquisitive songwriting that brings a new level of potency.” NME
“Beautiful.” Clash
Beth Gibbons releases “Reaching Out”, the second single from her debut solo album Lives Outgrown today.
Rather than approaching the video for "Reaching Out" as a standard format visual, Beth worked with visual artist Weirdcore (Aphex Twin, Arca) to create an interactive video. The video features 4D models of Beth freefalling through a kinetic sci-fi spacescape. As the video progresses, the models of Beth change to represent the different stages in her life, echoing the Lives Outgrown of the album title.
If you click and hold down on your mouse button, this allows you to interact and rotate the models to have a sense of them trying to reach each other in impossible ways.
Featuring 10 beautiful new tracks recorded over a period of 10 years, Lives Outgrown, out on Friday the 17th of May 2024, was produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, The Last Dinner Party) and Beth Gibbons with additional production by Lee Harris (Talk Talk).
Lives Outgrown is, by some measure, Beth’s most personal work to date, the result of a period of sustained reflection and change — “lots of goodbyes,” in Beth’s words. Farewells to family, to friends, even to her former self. These are songs from the mid-course of life, when looking ahead no longer yields what it used to, and looking back has a sudden, sharper focus.
“I realised what life was like with no hope,” says Beth. “And that was a sadness I’d never felt. Before, I had the ability to change my future, but when you’re up against your body, you can’t make it do something it doesn’t want to do.”
Songs also touch on motherhood, anxiety and the menopause (which Beth describes variously as “a massive audit” and “a massive comedown” which “cuts you at the knees”) as well as, inevitably, mortality.
“People started dying,” says Beth. “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.”
But emerging from this decade of change and realignment has left Beth with what feels like a renewed purpose. “Now I’ve come out of the other end, I just think, you’ve got to be brave,” she says.
Watch the static video HERE.
Visit the interactive site HERE.
Lives Outgrown will be available on the following formats: Standard LP, Deluxe LP (Tip-on Gatefold sleeve, heavyweight vinyl, 4 page booklet,12 page A5 studio scrapbook), Standard CD and Deluxe CD (casebound book). Purchases from Domino Mart & bethgibbons.net come with a signed postcard.
The tracklisting for Lives Outgrown is as follows:
1. Tell Me Who You Are Today
2. Floating On A Moment
3. Burden Of Life
4. Lost Changes
5. Rewind
6. Reaching Out
7. Oceans
8. For Sale
9. Beyond The Sun
10. Whispering Love
Beth Gibbons will be performing the following concerts in the UK and Europe in May and June. Tickets are on sale now via the Beth Gibbons store.
Monday 27th May - La Salle Pleyel, Paris - SOLD OUT
Tuesday 28th May - Theater 11, Zürich
Thursday 30th May - Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona
Friday 31st May - La Bourse Du Travail, Lyon – SOLD OUT
Sunday 2nd June - Uber Eats Music Hall, Berlin
Monday 3rd June - Falkonersalen, Copenhagen
Wednesday 5th June - TivoliVredenburg (Main Hall), Utrecht - SOLD OUT
Thursday 6th June - Cirque Royal, Brussels - SOLD OUT
Sunday 9th June - The Barbican Centre, London - SOLD OUT
Monday 10th June - Albert Hall, Manchester
Tuesday 11th June - Usher Hall, Edinburgh
