Okay! I promised you entries in the upper reaches of this list for records that exist outside of the metal fraternity. Here is one and it won’t be the last. You are probably thinking, “Beth Gibbons I know that name” and you’ll be right. She was and still is the voice of Bristolian auteurs Portishead, a band who (admittedly for a short time in the early 90’s) changed music forever. They stopped everyone in their tracks when they emerged playing an evocative mismatch of hip-hop, indie and ethereal goth entitled Trip-Hop. Debut record “Dummy” was everywhere and soundtracked everything.

Portishead still exist and sporadically play shows, though they haven’t released an album since 2008. Beth herself has become rather a recluse appearing every now and again as a special guest on other people’s albums. What has now become clear is that for the last decade she has been working on this, her first original composition solo album in her own name. It is an utterly remarkable album that fills an untapped void for honest record about growing old. It tackles directly the existential inward struggle of facing 60 when you still feel 16 and according to Beth its key influences are "motherhood, anxiety, menopause, and mortality".

It is a rugged and distinctly real album that brims with rustic reality. There is no sugarcoating here, instead we get a blisteringly bleak summary of the mundane nature of ageing. It borders on folk in many places but folk in its tragic storytelling form. These are lamenting torch songs, wistfully reminiscing and painfully regretting decisions not made and paths not taken. It is a thing of utter beauty, dark unforgiving and at times challenging, in the end, it is an unsurpassable treaty on the simple act of living life.

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