If you're expecting Out of Season to sound like Portishead or 'O'Rang (a uniquely psychedelic tribal/jazz/funk unit), prepare to be disappointed. The disc's best track, however, "Tom the Model," does resemble Talk Talk's classic Spirit of Eden. Whereas Portishead use hiphop's tools to forge intensely heartbreaking film-noirish scenarios that make downtempo grooves sound both antique and fresh, Gibbons/Rustin Man purvey burnished folk blues and blue-eyed soul painted in autumnal tints with mature restraint. Whereas Portishead's albums are turbulently emotional amalgams of Ike Hayes, Henry Mancini, Billie Holiday, and the RZA, Out of Season oozes an exquisite ache and lip-trembling melancholy that'll console fans of Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, and Dusty Springfield's tear-stained romanticism.
While not as sonically interesting as Gibbons' and Webb's past projects, Out of Season is undeniably a beautifully crafted album. The duo obviously labored long over MOR hallmarks like gently strummed acoustic guitars, angelic backing vocals (recalling the excellent Rotary Connection), swelling strings, and muted, Chet Baker-like horn arrangements, all of which are subtly executed and placed in a gilded frame.
Gibbons' lyrics delineate the bittersweetness of nature's fleeting beauty, love's knotty peculiarities, and the transient quality of relationships and human life: You know, Big Adult Themes people encounter in their 30s and 40s. Gibbons' penchant for Billie Holiday-like timbres in Portishead has been tamed to a forlorn whisper; she sings as if a baby were sleeping in the studio. She seems to have mellowed out a bit, too; I no longer want to hide the cutlery in her pad, which is how I felt after listening to Dummy and Portishead.
"I didn't want to imitate where I'd gone before," Gibbons says on her website about Out of Season. "The only thing we were after was something relatively honest." She notes that her collaboration with Webb "was the chance to explore songwriting, to have another challenge. It was almost like a 'first time' vibe."
As its title suggests, Out of Season strives for timelessness, and largely succeeds in defying you to pinpoint its copyright date. It is class and quality personified, and your parents are going to love it. DAVE SEGAL
With Alexi Murdoch. Wed Oct 22 at EMP Sky Church, 325 Fifth Ave N at Seattle Center, 770-2777, 9 pm, all ages, $17.50 EMP members, $19.50 public.
