Anyone who has heard Portishead play live will testify to the singular power of Beth Gibbons’ voice. Hers is the bleeding heart that puts the blood in their music. She seems to surrender herself on her way to finding the essence of her song. Every breath she takes is a measured move towards the truth. There is no daylight between singer and song.

Her reticence to command the spotlight only serves to magnify the connection she forges with her audience.

It’s a different scenario on record. Portishead have released three albums, and Gibbons is central to their sound as singer and songwriter, but it’s an ensemble effort and each part is made to fit in beautifully crafted, highly stylised arrangements. On the first two records, her torch-song vocals were treated and mixed to make them sound like the samples that surrounded them.

It's the sensitive way the vocals are recorded that makes her only solo record such a treat. Rustin Man is Paul Webb, once the bassist in Talk Talk, the high kings of mood and atmosphere. Gibbons had been working with him while Portishead were recording Dummy. Success put their collaboration on ice.

Out of Season feels like a record Gibbons had been waiting to make. The subtle instrumentation gives her room to breathe and she puts the extra space to great use. The full extent of her emotive vocal range is laid bare. She moves from electrifying vibrato to cracked whisper without skipping a beat. The control she exerts is total. The musical settings are calibrated to accompany her voice but never dominate it. Given free rein the pictures she paints are intensely expressive. The blues are rendered many different colours in this emotional landscape.