Beth Orton The Ground Above
Beth Orton's The Ground Above arrives as a weathered, quietly triumphant statement that traces grief toward morning with steady, often beautiful resolve. Across professional reviews, critics praise Orton's lived-in voice and the album's live, band-forward arrangements, arguing that the record's strength lies in songs t
“Celestial Light” is singled out as the finest vocal performance, making it the album's emotional peak.
The album’s core strength is grounding Orton’s voice within full-band arrangements that emphasize survival and communal warmth.
Best for listeners looking for love and grief, starting with Waiting and Cigarette Curls.
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Full consensus notes
Beth Orton's The Ground Above arrives as a weathered, quietly triumphant statement that traces grief toward morning with steady, often beautiful resolve. Across professional reviews, critics praise Orton's lived-in voice and the album's live, band-forward arrangements, arguing that the record's strength lies in songs that balance grit and tenderness rather than instant hooks.
The critical consensus gives The Ground Above an 80/100 score across 8 professional reviews, and reviewers consistently point to several standout tracks. Critics name “Cigarette Curls”, “The Ground Above”, “Waiting” and “Celestial Light” among the best songs on the record: “Cigarette Curls” is repeatedly noted for its Wurlitzer-centered build and haunted coda, “Waiting” for its Stax-tinged groove and catchiness, while the sprawling title track and the dreamlike “Celestial Light” register as emotional high points. Reviewers consistently highlight themes of grief and recovery, resilience and renewal, ambient otherworldliness, and a return to organic, live recording that foregrounds communal musicianship.
Not all critics read the album the same way; some celebrate its spacious, elegiac pacing and sonic maturation, while a few find the atmospherics less immediate and more immersive than pop-forward. Still, the consensus suggests The Ground Above rewards patience: its best tracks emerge as slow-blooming revelations that pair vocal vulnerability with muscular band arrangements. For those wondering what critics say about The Ground Above and whether it is worth listening to, the professional reviews point to an artist in refined command of sorrow, memory, and renewal, making this one of Orton's most affecting late-career statements.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Waiting
7 mentions
"The soulful “Waiting” takes on the form and tenor of a traditional love song"— Slant Magazine
Cigarette Curls
6 mentions
"the rootsy “Cigarette Curls” paints a portrait of a woman who remains vividly alive"— Slant Magazine
The Ground Above
6 mentions
"the opening title track to Orton’s ninth studio album, The Ground Above, feels like the 55-year-old is still walking through the wavy heat lines"— Far Out Magazine
The soulful “Waiting” takes on the form and tenor of a traditional love song
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
The Ground Above
Before I Knew
Cigarette Curls
Waiting
Celestial Light
I'll Miss You
Love You Right
Otherside
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 9 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Beth Orton has never been one for repetition, and on The Ground Above she makes that point plainly. The sprawling title track - eight minutes of slowly gathering tension - and the poised single “Waiting” stand out as the record's emotional poles, while “Celestial Light” registers as the album's finest vocal performance. Harrison's sentences favour measured admiration, noting vulnerability and bold self-production, so these best tracks read as both risk and reward within her three-decade evolution.
Key Points
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“Celestial Light” is singled out as the finest vocal performance, making it the album's emotional peak.
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The record's strengths are intimate songwriting, bold self-production, and a textured instrumental palette exploring love, grief and mortality.
Themes
Critic's Take
Beth Orton sounds more rooted on The Ground Above, turning band arrangements into a kind of companionable soil that lets songs like “The Ground Above” and “Otherside” land with real force. The title track moves from muffled transmission to haymaker moments, and “Cigarette Curls” shows Orton as a Wurlitzer-centered bandleader, gritty and smoky. “Waiting” breathes free, propelled by trumpet and organ, while “I’ll Miss You” and “Love You Right” trade breakup and resilience in a way that makes them among the best songs on The Ground Above.
Key Points
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The title track is best for its dramatic arc from muffled transmission to an eruptive vocal landing.
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The album’s core strength is grounding Orton’s voice within full-band arrangements that emphasize survival and communal warmth.
Themes
Critic's Take
Beth Orton's The Ground Above finds its surest moments in songs that unfold slowly and inevitably, especially “Cigarette Curls” and “Waiting”. McMullen writes in an observant, slightly elegiac tone, noting how “Cigarette Curls” opens with voice, piano, and percussion and grows into distant horns and insistent piano, which makes it one of the best tracks on The Ground Above. He also frames “Waiting” as a delightful, grooving tribute that wears its influences lightly, marking it among the best songs on the album. The result is an album of searching and small discoveries, the kind of record where the best tracks reward patience and repetition.
Key Points
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“Cigarette Curls” is the best song because it builds organically from sparse opening to rich arrangement.
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The album’s core strength is patient, weathered songwriting that rewards attentive listening and frames aging as discovery.
Themes
Fa
Critic's Take
Beth Orton returns with an album that moves from arid reflection to blossoming pop, and the best songs on The Ground Above prove it. The reviewer privileges the punchy, soulful “Waiting” as the standout, praising its Stax-like groove and heart-on-sleeve vocals. Equally notable are the live-off-the-floor free-form close of “Cigarette Curls” and the big, confident sweep of album closer “Otherside”, which together map the record's shift from desert to garden. The best tracks on The Ground Above are therefore those that let Orton's vocal truth lead the arrangement, trading folktronica window-dressing for full-bodied soul.
Key Points
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The best song is “Waiting” due to its punchy Stax-like arrangement and emotive, foregrounded vocals.
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The album’s core strengths are live, organic arrangements and a thematic arc from desert desolation to renewed resilience.
Themes
Critic's Take
Beth Orton returns with The Ground Above, a mature, elegiac record whose best songs are those that fold nostalgia into sweeter, expansive arrangements. Tom Doyle singles out “Cigarette Curls” for its haunted coda and vocal vulnerability, and praises “Waiting” as one of Orton's catchiest, Motown-tinged moments. The dreamy, piano-led “Celestial Light” is described as beautifully drowsy and starry-eyed, making it one of the best tracks on The Ground Above. Overall the album is framed as a creative resurgence, its strengths residing in textured production and Orton's weathered, soulful voice.
Key Points
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Cigarette Curls is the standout for its haunted coda and evocative vocal delivery.
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The album’s core strengths are textured, spacious production and Orton’s weathered, soulful voice conveying nostalgia and resilience.
Themes
Critic's Take
Beth Orton's The Ground Above is a contemplative record that moves from grief toward morning, and the best songs on The Ground Above make that arc quietly persuasive. The title track “The Ground Above” starts with cascading trumpet and tinkling piano, laying out the album's urgent opening, while the sparse, Eno-esque intro of “Before I Knew” and the rootsy portrait of memory in “Cigarette Curls” are among the album's most affecting moments. Orton's voice — creaky and lived-in here — makes tracks like “I’ll Miss You” and “Waiting” linger, turning small poetic details into emotional payoff. By the finale, “Love You Right” and “Otherside” bring a sanguine dawn that validates the record's slow, immersive mood.
Key Points
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“Cigarette Curls” is best for its vivid, rootsy portrait and resonant imagery.
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The album’s core strength is its immersive, atmospheric pacing that moves from grief to sanguine dawn.
Themes
Critic's Take
Beth Orton feels older, wiser and startlingly present on The Ground Above, and the best tracks on The Ground Above - the title cut and “Cigarette Curls” - showcase that mixture of frailty and triumph in spades. Wallace’s prose finds the opener so privately visceral that it trembles and breaks, yet becomes a candid assertion of triumph, while “Cigarette Curls” rides a soulful shuffle into a bewitching crescendo. He likewise singles out “Celestial Light” and “I’ll Miss You” for their tranquil, reverent handling of death and break-up, making them among the best songs on the record. The review reads as a ledger of survival: honest, unvarnished, and musically impeccable, and it steers listeners straight to these standout tracks.
Key Points
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The title track is best for its visceral vocal performance and thematic centrality.
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The album’s core strengths are emotional candour, nuanced production, and mature reflection.
Themes
Th
Critic's Take
Beth Orton drifts through The Ground Above with an ambient, otherworldly pulse that makes the title track and closing “Otherside” feel like bookends of a spectral suite. The reviewer hears the voice on “The Ground Above” as an unsettled spirit, “among the choirs of the gods”, ecstatic and lusty, which explains why “The Ground Above” emerges as one of the best tracks on the album. At the same time the closing “Otherside” seals the mood, leaving the listener in that disembodied, dreamlike space that defines the record. This is an album where atmosphere and vocal reverie make the best songs distinct, rather than brisk hooks or immediate pop payoff.
Key Points
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The title track is the best because its vocal performance embodies the album’s unsettled, ecstatic spirit.
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The album’s core strength is its sustained ambient, dreamlike atmosphere and vocal reverie.
Themes
Critic's Take
Beth Orton sounds dug-in and weathered on The Ground Above, and the record’s best songs are those that marry grit and tenderness. Elsewhere, “Love You Right” balances cruelty and care in a way that crystallizes the record’s themes of motherhood and marriage. This is one of her best albums, precisely because the strongest tracks foreground her cracked voice and the live, snowy arrangements that suit it.
Key Points
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The title track is best for its arresting opening line and thematic clarity.
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The album’s core strength is its combination of cracked vocals and live, snowy arrangements that foreground Orton’s songwriting.