Beth Orton talks us through new album ‘The Ground Above’ track by track

Beth Orton has returned with The Ground Above, the ninth album from the genre-blending star.

Orton’s first album in four years is distinctively split into two halves, she explains, themed around life’s two certainties of grief and death.

“What kept me alive, and sometimes nearly killed me, through most of my childhood and all the way through my early 30’s was a kind of feral invincibility, barrelling through,” she says. “I said yes to life, over and over again, embraced and devoured all that I could, propelled magnetically in a flying dream that didn’t allow for time to catch up with me, except for when it did of course.” 

These two emotions form the backbone of a very special record.

Listen along to The Ground Above and read Orton’s track-by-track guide of the new record exclusively on Rolling Stone UK below.

‘The Ground Above‘

Music is my invincibility cloak. If we allow love to find us out we can die into being born. We all live alongside grief, grief makes us more alive to life. Many of the songs on this record cross timelines. Having kids has politicised me. Against the fast-moving horror show, the ever changing prism of the politics of our time, The Ground Above took on a new intensity.

‘Before I knew‘

This track was recorded live and kept live. I think we did two takes and we all felt this was the one. The ending is one of my most loved of any endings on any of my records and I love a good ending. On the third day at Fish Factory in London there was Chris Vatalaro on drums and Tom Herbert on bass, Sam Beste on piano and special guest Adrian Utley. The trumpet was the only overdub. I had a loop made from Adrian’s acoustic but apart from that it’s as we played it in the room. Plus a very special guest appearance from Sam Amidon on fiddle at the final hour.

‘Cigarette Curls’

I sent the stems of the initial recording session to Paul Butler in LA who added harmonies and horns and strings. I loved working with Paul. He is a beautiful soul and he gave so much to the record. Once the song was recorded I sent it to Nick Hakim who has been inspiring me the last few years in my approach to making music. Nick made harmonies that added honey to an already inspired killer extended extension of the track.

‘Waiting‘

Precipice living, frozen in preparing for the cosmic smack round the head whilst life is busy happening anyway. I was thinking Terry Callier Ordinary Joe when I first started writing the song, I had high hopes… Recorded with the band on day one of our sessions. I loved where the band went with the track but it lost some of the heart being so upbeat from the off. Once in my studio at home I recorded a new intro solo on piano and sent it to Shahzad who added sweet organ and a little bass and guitar and the song was able to pause and breath and then when the band come in it’s a moment that allows the story of the song to open out into wide screen. I love where Waiting ended up. I took the song to my US musicians at a session in Figure * recordings and Jesse Chandler over dubbed the flute which is stunning, Teeny Leiberson and Grey Mc’Murray added BV’s. By the end the track was more Van Morrison and the more it moved that way the better it felt.

‘Celestial Light‘

Recorded at FIGURE 8 recordings in NYC. Ben Sloan on drums in his element. Shahzad on bass and Juno. Jesse on flute and Grey Mc’Murray on guitars. Sam Beste over from London on Piano and Syntax. Mauro Refrosco overdubbed glass Marimba. A beautiful seamless take that each person added to like a painting we passed from hand to hand. Love my US band mates, have toured with them for much of  Weather Alive which is how we could create music as seamless.

The song is a love song to landscapes and poetry and gratitude.

‘I’ll Miss You‘

Each of the songs I’ve ever written has a poem attached to it at some point in its creation, however abstract and indirectly that might be. There is some Anna Akhmatova sewn into the lining of this one.  Tom Skinner brought the beat which is beyond gorgeous. I came out of this one last session with these beautiful spare drums and bass and my piano with Dave Okumu bringing the atmosphere. Working remotely with Shahzad he played the flute and nylon string guitar, synth and percussion and we coloured in around the rest.

‘Love You Right‘

I wrote this song in a reverie whilst reading Dylan Thomas and wondering aloud to myself about a country song and the great singers of that tradition. Chris Vatalaro who plays drums on this song called Love You Right my version of a gospel song. I didn’t know if that’s right, although Chris is never usually wrong, it is a true song written from the heart.

‘Otherside‘

I heard that when birds sing in the morning it is to tell all their bird friends that they are still alive, that they made it through the night. I found some simple chords on the piano after a particularly sleepless night and this song welled up. 

One of the most important lines in it is the one about having another day to make it right. The idea that a day can start again should you choose, however rough its been, we can set the clock to now and make good. Within this line are the seeds of compassion and forgiveness toward the self and others.