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List Price: $18.98 | | Label: Astralwerks
Salesrank: 37024
Released: July 30, 2002 |
| Our Price: $2.80 |
| Used Price: $0.03 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Daybreaker Track Listing:
1. Paris Train
2. Concrete Sky
3. Mount Washington
4. Anywhere
5. Daybreaker
6. Carmella
7. God Song
8. This One's Gonna Bruise
9. Ted's Waltz
10. Thinking About Tomorrow
Editorial Review:
Like Beth Orton's previous offerings, her third album makes a slight first impression. Sure, the jangly acoustic guitars, drifting melodies, and robust voice are pleasant enough, but it is only after a while that the true potency of the songs becomes apparent. "Nobody can keep you from the one you know you are," she sings quietly on "Mount Washington." Fueled by her mother's early passing, each of Orton's songs is accordingly anchored by a deep sense of sadness and loss. Despite the occasional electronic flourishes at the hands of collaborators such as the Chemical Brothers and Everything but the Girl's Ben Watt, and the beaming West Coast harmonies she shares with pal Ryan Adams, Daybreaker is a supremely personal record. "There's a concrete sky falling from the trees again and I don't know why," she muses on "Concrete Sky." And like Tim Buckley and Nick Drake--the hopeless folk icons that came before her--there seems to be a sublime urgency in her work that suggests a seemingly innocent song like "Thinking About Tomorrow" is not so much about optimism as fate. --Aidin Vaziri
Daybreaker Reviews:
truly remarkable 
2009-05-14 - I loved this cd. Totally bought it on a whim, and had never heard of Beth Orton. I tend to prefer dance and electronic music to this folky stuff, but this was something different and really interesting...within a few listens I was HOOKED. I'd highly recommend it!
Definitely NOT her best 
2009-04-03 - What a shame to think that the four-year wait ended with this. Beth stated that this album was a bit of a challenge for her and it's more than a little evident.
To call it half-baked would be a bit harsh, but it definitely is a cop-out in the way it dresses up the production to hide the lack of good material. It also features guests (another disguise) like Ryan Adams, who's fine but unnecessary on "Concrete Sky" and Emmylou Harris who's whining makes "God Song" even more annoying than it is already. "Mount Washington" and "Ted's Waltz" don't seem to shake up anything much and the title cut may very well be the worst thing she has recorded so far. "Carmella" starts off promising, but also gets overblown in the instrumentation and vocal quirkiness. "Paris Train", "Anywhere", "This One's Gonna Bruise" and "Thinking About Tomorrow" are all okay songs, but none of them are up to par with her previous capabilities.
The bottom line is Beth was obviously lacking some creativity with this release, which means she may be miles ahead of other artists, but still just middle-of-the-road for herself.
Ima Fan
2009-02-10 - I love to spread the gospel according to Beth. This CD did not grab me at first, but the more I listened to it the more I liked it. I think it's great - just like Beth.
Yawn 
2008-08-22 - Her whiny voice, dreary music style, and jaded lyrics are enough to put me to sleep. 3 tracks were good but none of them incredible: "This One's Gonna Bruise," "Concrete Sky," & "Daybreaker."
Thinking about tommorrow
2006-03-17 - She'd been waiting for us, she'd been creating for us. Following Beth Orton is an eternal game of "catch up". The one thing you'll see time and time again through the customer reviews of this album is that you've got to give it time. I'll weigh in on that thought with an observation. Usually we associate a plethora of producers and mixers with an attempt to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. There are many creative hands, all much-respected in music circles, contributing to this project. Beth herself seems aware of the impact this may have on a prejudicial audience, judging from the layout of the liner notes. It's virtually impossible at first blush to dissect the project by looking throught the liner. One has to study it time and time again (ideally while listening to the album) before one can get a grip on all the various collaborators and their exact contributions, or even the words to the songs themselves. As a result any opinions formed stand a greater chance of emanating from exposure to the music itself.
An album of music and a liner of notes that had so frustrated me proved, over time, to be just right after all. All those hands weren't trying to tart-up the less-than-worthy. They were actually trying to reign-in one of the most rich pieces of work to come forth in this decade. I suspect that much like the listener they didn't quite know where to start. Nonetheless, I'd say they succeeded.
