Beth Orton: Comfort of Strangers

After 2002's not-so-stellar follow up Daybreaker to the very-stellar Central Reservation, stringbean/songstress Beth Orton has followed up with something somewhere in between.

I can't really decide. 14 tracks (albeit relatively short ones)? Douchebagette:

• Half of those tracks (i.e. Conceived, Comfort of Strangers) make me feel like I'm watching the Gilmore Girls. Although a decent show, it's a couple steps diagonal to Dawson's Creek -> Paula Cole -> hairy armpits territory.
• You get the feeling while listening to the stripped down production that Jim O'Rourke (he of Wilco and Sonic youth 'fame') really took on this project in the hopes he could bone Beth Orton. Fair enough, seeing as potential Douchebag hall-of-famer Ryan Adams got in there.
• A song called Pieces of Sky. Seriously. Now we're in Bright Eyes territory.

The above clearly meets the criteria for Douchebaggery, though not quite to the level of Douchebuggery. But, Orton's Comfort of Strangers narrowly escapes the stamp of Douchebag because of the following:

• She sings real nice.
• In opening track Worms: "Worms don't dance / they haven't got the balls" Definite no douche zone there.
• An album cover with a half-grainy photo where she's not featured staring wistfully into something.
• A true effort into trying to create solid melody.
• The b-sides will probably better than the album tracks, just like Daybreaker.
  

The count: Orton beats the douche, 5 to 3.