Every Monday, Add of the Week unveils all the new songs going into the 88Nine on-air playlist, with one hand-picked selection put in the spotlight by a member of our music team.
The simple, analog instrumentation of keys and bass hazily lead English singer-songwriter Beth Gibbons on a quest to find a path with no end on “Floating On a Moment.”
Gibbons — the iconic voice of ’90s-born downtempo/trip-hop group Portishead — unveiled a remarkable musical resurfacing with this song, which is the opening statement for her first solo album, Lives Outgrown (produced by James Ford and Talk Talk’s Lee Harris).
Her otherworldly voice knows no place or time, and is the perfect messenger for such a pondering-yet-hopeful song that enhances the mood by interspersing the voices of children echoing Gibbons: “It just reminds us, all we have is here and now,” with “All going to nowhere …”
Of the song’s (and album’s) broader themes, Gibbons explained, “People started dying. When you’re young, you never know the endings, you don’t know how it’s going to pan out. You think: ‘We’re going to get beyond this. It’s going to get better.’ Some endings are hard to digest.”
“I realised what life was like with no hope, and that was a sadness I’d never felt,” she continued. “Before, I had the ability to change my future, but when you’re up against your body, you can’t make it do something it doesn’t want to do.”
You can listen to “Floating On a Moment” here and on 88Nine by tuning your FM dial in Milwaukee or streaming worldwide on our website and mobile app. Then look for Beth Gibbons’ debut solo album, Lives Outgrown, on May 17 from Domino Records
This week’s other adds
- Iron & Wine, "You Never Know"
- MRCY, "Lorelei"
- Gary Clark Jr., "Maktub"
- The Decemberists, "Burial Ground"
- Reyna Tropical, "Cartagena"
- Maggie Rogers, "Don't Forget Me"
