Beth Orton

On her third album, Beth Orton quietly makes the case that she may be textural pop’s answer to the great female Lusophone singers—Amalia Rodriguez, Cesaria Evora and Gal Costa come to mind. The settings for Orton’s explorations are modern, thrumming as they do with so-called electronica interwoven with acoustic and electric instruments. But there is deep sadness brought about from dislocation, in these midtempo grooves, and that comes from Orton’s voice—a marvelously expressive vehicle that manages to convey so much within a fairly narrow vocal range. Much of Daybreaker consists of long layabout tracks; think the trancelike qualities of Astral Weeks-era Van Morrison, or Tim Buckley, updated by the Chemical Brothers and Ben Watt of Everything But The Girl. Ryan Adams guests on a couple of tracks, and Emmylou Harris joins on one of those. But this clearly is Orton’s show.