New York, NY (Top40 Charts) English singer/songwriter
Beth Orton shares the warm, Proust-referencing track "
Friday Night" today ("Though we never do get too close, I still hold you now and then," Orton sings.) Featuring The
Smile drummer Tom Skinner, multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily and Mercury Prize nominated bassist Tom Herbert of The Invisible, "
Friday Night" is the latest preview from Orton's first LP in six years and Partisan Records debut Weather Alive, out
September 23rd.
"
Friday Night" follows tracks "
Forever Young" and the lead single/title track (released in May) which earned widespread praise from The New York Times, NME, and Pitchfork who named "Weather Alive" a Best New Track calling it "a slow-burning tour de force." Rolling Stone added that the song is "the perfect ethereal glue," and Stereogum stated simply "if the title track is anything to go by, holy shit are we in for something."
Says Orton of the song: "'Friday Night' is someone reflecting on and trying to decide what to give up or what to surrender to.
Passion or ambivalence? Whether to 'bleed or rust in the rain.' Most of us are struggling to make sense of where to put the love we have for those that are lost to us, let alone the ones that remain. Sometimes there is no right answer except to find the wisdom in the spaces between the endings and beginnings, in the remembrance of things past or in search of lost time, there are always repercussions to the choices we make. We are listening to the internal dialogue of someone living it out, what is futile and what is worth fighting for, and trying to do as little damage along the way. Friday night being the night that makes the week more bearable, there is hope. Coming to realise what is real and what is out of reach can be unbelievably painful, waking up to the love that remains can be the greatest gift and the most wonderful surprise. Even in absence there is presence, there is no escape but to look for where the love is still alive within us."
Today Orton also announces her fist US headlining tour in over five years following her return to live shows on an arena stint with Alanis Morisette this Spring. Orton will play at Bowery Ballroom in NYC, The Teragram in Los Angeles, The Mayfield in
Chicago and more. This Fall, she will also play a handful of UK and EU festivals before a headline UK tour through October including a KOKO Camden show on October 9th. Tickets for all US shows will go on sale this Friday, August 19th. See the full list of tour dates below and here: https://bethortonofficial.com/tour
Weather Alive arrives after the passing of two of Orton's closest musical compatriots Andrew Weatherall and Hal Willner as well as a period of incorrectly diagnosed health issues for Orton, who soon found that newfound clarity could be as disempowering as the previously unanswered questions about her well-being.
Strange occurrences persisted along with a renewed sense of self, in which Orton was only able to process through long periods of making music at the piano. These experiences turned into the eight-track Weather Alive, the first album she's ever self-produced in her nearly 30-year career and what she describes at its core as a collaboration with the self.
"I wanted to be one of those women who are all sorted and put together some day but at 40, I kept getting messier and more ill and things just kept going wrong," Orton says. "This record explores all of that. I'm talking about my experiences possibly in a more personal way then I ever have but the important part will be how this music makes other people feel. It's not a finished masterpiece, it is a collaboration with time, of someone struggling to make sense. And in that struggle, something beautiful got made."
BETH ORTON TOUR DATES:
19 AUG 2022 / UK / Devon / Beautiful Days Festival
21 AUG 2022 / IE / Bangor County Down / Open House Festival
7 OCT 2022 / UK / Birmingham / Academy 2
8 OCT 2022 / UK / Brighton / St. Bartholomew's Church
9 OCT 2022 / UK / London / KOKO
10 OCT 2022 / UK / Norwich / Arts Centre
12 OCT 2022 / UK / Bristol / St. George's
13 OCT 2022 / UK / Glasgow / Classic Grand
15 OCT 2022 / UK / Manchester / RCMN Concert Hall
16 OCT 2022 / UK / Leeds / Brudenell Social Club
NOV 1 2022 / Washington, DC / Sixth & I
NOV 2 2022 / Philadelphia, PA / World Café Live
NOV 3 2022 / Montclair, NJ / First Congregational Church
NOV 5 2022 / New York, NY / Bowery Ballroom
NOV 6 2022 / Somerville, MA / Crystal Ballroom
NOV 7 2022 / Montreal, QUE / Le Studio TD
NOV 8 2022 / Toronto, ONT / The Great Hall
NOV 10 2022 / Chicago, IL / The Mayfield
NOV 11 2022 / Milwaukee, WI / Pabst Theater
NOV 12 2022 / Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN / The Cedar
NOV 14 2022 / Denver, CO / Oriental Theater
NOV 16 2022 / Phoenix, AZ / Musical Instrument Museum
NOV 17 2022 / Los Angeles, CA / Teragram Ballroom
NOV 18 2022 / San Francisco, CA / Bimbo's
NOV 20 2022 / Portland, OR / Mississippi Studios
NOV 21 2022 / Seattle, WA / Neptune
NOV 22 2022 / Vancouver, BC / Hollywood Theater.
