Comfort Of Strangers will remain a touchstone; a crystal-clear, untouchable portrait of her art and soul.  Full text...

Comfort of Strangers isn’t only Orton’s best album to date, it’s her most daring.  Full text...

Comfort of Strangers is a more confident record than 2002's Daybreaker, exhibiting an economy of craft and unvarnished execution that might glide by less attentive ears but rewards the keen consumer with a warmth and depth worthy of the artist who created Central Reservation.  Full text...

Fleeting, yes. But beautiful.  Full text...

The result is a lovely set of pop-flavored neo-folk  Full text...

As a songwriter, Orton is often melancholy, never dreary; often contemplative, never meandering; often heart-struck, never sappy. These new fourteen tracks delve into standard thematic territory but still feel fresh.  Full text...

Death of love is the constant, often oppressive theme of Comfort of Strangers, which gives these songs the feel of dark therapy, often so dour as to be claustrophobic.  Full text...

On Comfort of Strangers, Orton sounds more focused than ever, channeling drawled heartache, warm come-ons and snatches of lost AM-radio hits into songs that seek out your inner lullaby.  Full text...

Comfort of Strangers finds beauty in stark simplicity.  Full text...

Those who found the lo-fi Daybreaker a bit dreary can take heart because Comfort Of Strangers has a brighter slant altogether. Bleakness is shunned in favour of full-bodied warmth; with harmonies, harmonicas and blissed-out strings throughout.  Full text...

Beth Orton is like a Burger King Whopper: they're not the best, but their quality is fair and unwavering, and they're very nice to eat.  Full text...

The music on Comfort of Strangers is at times so complex and distracting that it often overshadows Orton's winsome voice, proving that some guests make less than perfect bedfellows.  Full text...

Maybe Beth Orton, unlike some of her still-desperate-for-kudos contemporaries, is merely growing old gracefully, but clearly gracefully aging doesn't necessarily make for great records.   Full text...

Whatever the reasons behind choosing O'Rourke as a producer, the truth is he seems to understand what to do with an artist like Orton: write some songs, record that voice, make some pleasant doodles in the background to stop it getting lonely, and then bugger off down the pub. Nothing more complex than that.  Full text...

From the front cover oil painting of a rainbow, right through to the forlorn closing piano notes, "Comfort of Strangers" is a tasteful offering from an accomplished musician.  Full text...

Not as good as Trailer Park, but her best thing since.  Full text...

It's a safe bet that not many of these 14 country-folk ruminations will turn up as ringtones.  Full text...

Orton’s songs are too often, just ordinary.  Full text...

Two weeks in a small analogue studio were all it took to create this lean and clean collection of girl-and-her-guitar/girl-at-the-piano singer-songs.  Full text...