Lives Outgrown

This album feels like a more fleshed out album, in the sense of it having the same mysteriousness to it, but without a sense of ascension, and more of a feeling of spiraling deep into the clutches of hopelessness and dread of what games life has in store for us. Beth was always a master of creating atmosphere, be it solo, or when she's fronting Portishead. The album is theatrical, but not in a way of relying on a grandiose notion, but having a cathartic element, and pouring emotion of peril and uncertainty that slowly drips.

Lives Outgrown was an album I waited ever since it was first announced, and I'm glad it didn't let me down. One of the few highlights in music this year.