Trailer Park

After Portishead’s major splash with *Dummy*, a legion of trip-hop wannabes followed. But London-based folkie Beth Orton went her own way, linking hip-hop and dance tropes to acoustic sounds for an enticing new style. “She Cries Your Name,” the opener of her 1997 debut, *Trailer Park*, caught many of its elements in their most arresting state: stand-up bass, a loose but steady beat played on a live kit, strings and a few organ flourishes. Atop it all, Orton’s voice rose. “Cries” was about a broken love affair, but the real message was in the music. One moody track followed another, with the lighter shades of “Live As You Dream” and “Someone’s Daughter” along to keep Orton from disappearing into an emotional black hole. The weary, sad cover of the Ronettes’ “I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine,” however, adds another peak before the striking last cut: the 10-minute “Galaxy of Emptiness,” the simplest yet most complex of all Orton’s chill-out rhapsodies.

A folkie for the electronica age, Beth Orton brilliantly bridges the gap between acoustic songcraft and digital dance beats with her extraordinary debut album, Trailer Park.