Beth Orton releases dreamy new single 'Friday Night'
Image: Eliot Lee Hazel
UK singer-songwriter Beth Orton has released new single ‘Friday Night’, the third release from her upcoming eighth studio album Weather Alive, due for release September 23.
Written and produced by Orton, it is a stunningly simple but moving song. Orton’s wavering, off kilter vocal dominates the song, backed by shuffling electronic beats, gentle, almost angelic backing vocals and flute. Lyrically the song explores the confusion engendered by loss.
“’Friday Night’ is someone reflecting on, and trying to decide, what to give up or what to surrender to,” Orton says. “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.”
‘Friday Night’ follows the singles ‘Forever Young’ and ‘Weather Alive’ as tasters from her eighth studio album Weather Alive which will be released on September 23. Orton’s first album for 6 years, it is entirely self-produced, a first for Orton in her 30 year career. Fittingly, it is in many ways a rebirth for Orton who had been feeling disconnected from her life and her art.
“Through the writing of these songs and the making of this music, I found my way back to the world around me – a way to reach nature and the people I love and care about,” Orton says of the album. “This record is a sensory exploration that allowed for a connection to a consciousness that I was searching for. Through the resonance of sound and a beaten-up old piano I bought in Camden Market while living in a city I had no intention of staying in, I found acceptance and a way of healing.”
Orton has been creating beguiling music since her international breakthrough in 1996 with the single ‘She Cries Your Name’ and album Trailer Park. A very special voice and sound, Orton is an artist whose artistry has become stronger and more nuanced as the years progressed. Weather Alive was a response to a personal crisis, and in the process has become quite possibly her best work to date. “It’s not a finished masterpiece, it is a collaboration with time, of someone struggling to make sense,” she says. “And in that struggle, something beautiful got made.”
‘Friday Night’ is out now via Partisan Records / Liberator Music. You can download and stream here.
Weather Alive will be released on September 23. You can pre-order and pre-save here.
To keep up with all things Beth Orton you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
