Beth Orton
Beth Orton's 29-year career has been an unlikely, cognitively dissonant affair. Her '90s albums sat somewhere between '60s British folk revival, Lilith Fair compilations, and rave down-tempo tents. She was an early '00s dorm room staple, a diva of UK trip-hop, and managed to have successful collaborations with both Emmylou Harris and the Chemical Brothers. I once saw her play achingly beautiful chamber-folk versions of her songs with a string quartet, and follow each with a story more crude and hilarious than the last.
by Joshua James Amberson