Beth Orton: Comfort Of Strangers [PARLOPHONE]

Why you'll love it

Beth Orton's fifth album back on vinyl, the stripped-back record she made in just two weeks in New York with Jim O'Rourke producing. Fourteen songs, with "Conceived" and the title track.

This edition

• Reissue of the 2006 album
• Fourteen tracks across two sides

About the album

Beth Orton made her name in the 90s blending folk songwriting with trip-hop beats, a sound people called folktronica, but by Comfort Of Strangers she wanted something simpler. She went to New York's Sear Sound in the spring of 2005 with Jim O'Rourke, the Chicago musician known for Sonic Youth and Wilco, and they made the album in two weeks: Orton on guitar, piano and harmonica, O'Rourke on bass, piano and marimba, and Tim Barnes on drums.

The songs are warm, unvarnished and wonderfully direct, from "Worms" and "Heartland Truckstop" to "Conceived" and "Shopping Trolley". It's the sound of a great songwriter with nothing to hide behind. Two weeks, three musicians and a lot of trust; we'd take that recipe over a year in the studio most days.

Tracklist

Listen

Out October 2, 2026 on Parlophone, a reissue of the 2006 album.