On Beth Gibbons' 'Lives Outgrown,' the Portishead singer invites us in
Even at the height of Portishead's fame, singer Beth Gibbons seemed in self-selected exile from usual music-industry machinations. For 30 years, or ever since the Bristol trio stumbled into surprising stardom and helped usher in trip-hop as a genre, Gibbons barely participated in the promotional hubbub around infrequent releases. A 2019 tally suggested she'd done just two brief interviews ever. In one, from 1995, she mostly smiles, laughs and pantomimes uncomfortably; in the other, she stands shivering by a boat, then waffles about whether she wants to do press at all.
She seemed to know, however, exactly what to do with the ostensible windfall: Where or or even turned major-label cache and earnings into their own eccentric empires, Gibbons made something much more familiar — an almost entirely private life. Aside from the occasional charity, Grammy-winning guest, symphonic or very rare candid, Gibbons receded into the ordinary work of just being an adult.
