Opening with a full minute of Enoesque ambient sound, "Mysteries" blossoms into a sparse symphony of acoustic guitar and choir that backs Gibbons's weary, achingly beautiful vocal. "Tom the Model" pulses with a horn-driven, string-drenched Memphis-soul groove that wouldn't sound out of place on a classic Al Green album.
Out of Season revels in its diverse palette, running the gamut from the lush Bacharach-meets-Axelrod arrangement on "Romance" to the starkly folky rumination "Resolve." The relentless melancholy of Gibbons's songs might be a bit much for some, but she pulls off the heartbroken pathos when most would degenerate into woebegone caricature.
