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Title: "The Phantom Menace" of Beth Orton albums
Review: Enormous potential. A history of excellence. But something went terribly wrong in the execution. Maybe it's not as bad as the subject line would suggest but it's a huge disappointment nonetheless. Even has "Worms" as Jar-Jar. With the exception of the occasionally harmonica bit, the band just isn't terribly interesting. And a lot of the melodic aspects and tonal richness of Beth's singing are gone -- sometimes she just sounds like a squaking crow.I started listening to Beth after hearing her guest performances with the Chemical Brothers & really enjoyed her voice in that context, but with a conventional band (and production that ofter underemphasizes the vocals in favor of humdrum backup) it's just not that interesting. I've tried, really, playing this over and over, but it still disappoints.
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