# Lives Outgrown

Lives Outgrown is the debut solo studio album by English musician Beth Gibbons, released on 17 May 2024 through Domino Recording Company. The album was produced by Gibbons, James Ford and Lee Harris. It was preceded by the singles "Floating on a Moment", "Reaching Out", and "Lost Changes". The album received positive reviews from critics, and was nominated for the 2024 Mercury Prize.

## Background and composition

Gibbons wrote the album over a decade, with topics specific to her walk of life nearing age 60, including "motherhood, anxiety, menopause, and mortality". Gibbons said that the album was directly influenced by the deaths of family and friends over the preceding several years and she "realised what life was like with no hope".

## Release

On 7 February 2024, Gibbons announced the album alongside its lead single, "Floating on a Moment". She released the album's second single, "Reaching Out", on 10 April 2024. The album's third single, "Lost Changes", was released on 15 May 2024.

## Critical reception

Professional ratings :
| Aggregate scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 88/100 |
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| The Guardian | |
| Mojo | |
| NME | |
| Pitchfork | 8.0/10 |
| Record Collector | |
| The Skinny | |
| Slant Magazine | |
| Uncut | 9/10 |
Lives Outgrown received a score of 88 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on 22 critics' reviews, which the website categorised as "universal acclaim". Uncut felt that "Lives Outgrown is a quite different prospect to Gibbons' previous work – more intimate, more personal, coloured by the grief and goodbyes she has weathered in recent years. But it is still possible to find a thread that runs from here to Out of Season, and back to Portishead". The Wire called it "timeless and considered" and "a complete, but still complicated, portrait of the intersection of grief and life", and Mojo wrote that while it can "all sound bleak[, ...] Lives Outgrown is also very beautiful".
The Skinny's Patrick Gamble described the album as "a haunting collection of torch songs" as well as "a record about departures and the transition to a new equilibrium". Charles Lyons-Burt of Slant Magazine said that it "picks up where Portishead's 2008 album, Third, left off, with detail-rich orchestral chamber pop backing a stunning exploration of aging and grief" that is "as captivating as it is devastating". Record Collector's Johnnie Johnstone concluded that Lives Outgrown is "an album to fall deeply in love with. If you allow them to, these songs will envelop your soul."
Reviewing the album for AllMusic. Heather Phares described the album as being, "steeped in the emotional and physical realities of living long enough to bring life into the world and to see it leave" and concluded that "Lives Outgrown reveals Gibbons' music is only getting richer as the years pass." Alexis Petridis from The Guardian also highlighted the level of growth displayed on the album, writing: "A dispatch from the darker moments of middle age, Lives Outgrown is occasionally challenging, frequently beautiful and invariably gripping." Ben Cardew at Pitchfork noted the eclecticism of Gibbon's music, saying that "Leftfield choices underscore the courageous and subtly unusual nature of Gibbons' album, which hides its eccentricity behind her deathless voice and sympathetic lyrical insight."

### Year-end lists

Numerous critics and publications listed Lives Outgrown in their year-end ranking of the best albums of 2024.
Select year-end rankings for Lives Outgrown :
| Publication/critic | Accolade | Rank |
| AllMusic | The AllMusic 2024 Year In Review | — |
| Alternative Press | 50 best albums of 2024 | — |
| Crack | The Top 50 Albums of 2024 | 34 |
| Double J | The 50 best albums of 2024 | 16 |
| The Economist | The Economist’s pick of the best albums of 2024 | — |
| The Line of Best Fit | The Best Albums of the Year | 16 |
| The New York Times | Best Albums of 2024 | 7 |
| NPR Music | 50 Best Albums of 2024 | — |
| Mojo | 75 Best Albums of 2024 | 3 |
| Mondo Sonoro | Los mejores discos internacionales de 2024 | 24 |
| NME | The 50 best albums of 2024 | 26 |
| Oor | OOR’s Eindlijst 2024 | 9 |
| Paste | The 100 Best Albums of 2024 | 15 |
| PopMatters | The 80 Best Albums of 2024 | 24 |
| Rough Trade UK | Albums of the Year 2024 | 44 |
| Slant | The 50 Best Albums of 2024 | 16 |
| Time | The 10 Best Albums of 2024 | 1 |
| Uncut | 80 Best Albums of 2024 | 3 |

## Track listing

All tracks are written by Beth Gibbons; "Tell Me Who You Are Today", "Burden of Life", "Rewind", and "Beyond the Sun" written with Lee Harris.

## Personnel

Musicians
* Beth Gibbons – vocals (all tracks), backing vocals (tracks 1–9), acoustic guitar (1, 3–5, 9), guitar (2), vocoder (10)
* Lee Harris – drums (tracks 1–9), percussion (1, 3–6, 9, 10); daf, Mellotron (1); whistle (4), field recordings (10)
* James Ford – vibraphone (tracks 1, 2, 4), double bass (1, 2), piano (1, 3, 4, 6, 9), harmonium (1, 3, 9, 10), backing vocals (1, 5); Mellotron, spoons (1); cello (2–4, 6, 9), percussion (2, 4–9), bass (2, 4, 5, 7, 9), acoustic guitar (2, 4, 5, 9, 10), baritone guitar (2, 4, 5), flute (2, 4, 6–8), recorders (2, 4, 6, 7, 9), Hammond organ (2, 4), hammered dulcimer (2, 5), drums (2, 7, 8), pedal steel (2), Farfisa (3, 5, 9), dulcimer (4, 9, 10), electric guitars (4, 9); Solina, additional drums (4), bass clarinet (5, 6, 9, 10), feedback (5), guitars (6, 7); Chinese lute, synth piano, marching snare, trumpet, trombone (6); bowed saw (7, 9), EBow dulcimer (7), violin drones, acoustic bass (8, 10); 12-string acoustic guitar, resonator guitars (8); fuzz flute, violin, singing tubes (9); toms (10)
* Orchestrate – strings, woodwinds (tracks 1, 3); brass (1)
* Senab Adekunle – backing vocals (tracks 2, 4–6)
* Gracie – backing vocals (track 2), "instrumental ooh/hum" (10)
* Herbie – backing vocals (track 2)
* Roe – backing vocals (track 2)
* Raven Bush – violin (tracks 3–8, 10), viola (3–6), baritone viola (7, 8, 10), violin solo (8)
* William Rees – noise guitar (track 4)
* Robbie McIntosh – acoustic guitar (track 4)
* Howard Jacobs – bass saxophone, tenor saxophone, clarinets, percussion, frame drum, mizmar (track 6)
Technical
* Beth Gibbons – production, mixing, additional engineering; string arrangement (tracks 3–8), woodwind arrangement (3)
* James Ford – production, mixing, engineering; string arrangement (tracks 1, 3–8), woodwind arrangement (1, 3), brass arrangement (1)
* Lee Harris – additional production, additional engineering; string arrangement, woodwind arrangement, brass arrangement (track 1)
* Matt Colton – mastering
* Matt Jaggar – orchestra engineering
* Jimmy Robertson – additional engineering
* Tom Leach – additional engineering
* Billy Foster – additional engineering
* George Chung – orchestra engineering assistance
* Bridget Samuels – string arrangement, woodwind arrangement (tracks 1, 3); brass arrangement (1)
Visuals
* Netsi Habel – photography, cover photo
* Matthew Cooper – design

## Charts

Chart performance for Lives Outgrown :
| Chart (2024) | Peak position |
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 50 |
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) | 5 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) | 11 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) | 4 |
| Danish Albums (Hitlisten) | 15 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) | 14 |
| French Albums (SNEP) | 13 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) | 5 |
| Irish Albums (IRMA) | 96 |
| Italian Albums (FIMI) | 69 |
| Japanese Hot Albums (Billboard Japan) | 67 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) | 37 |
| Polish Albums (ZPAV) | 69 |
| Portuguese Albums (AFP) | 9 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC) | 4 |
| Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) | 36 |
| Swedish Physical Albums (Sverigetopplistan) | 9 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) | 4 |
| UK Albums (OCC) | 7 |
| UK Independent Albums (OCC) | 1 |