For Beth Orton, the range in her catalogue is the sum of her role models—and then some. Her lilting melodies borrow from the organic soul of Roberta Flack and Terry Callier; her strummed arrangements evoke the baroque folk of Bert Jansch. Her spitfire flair has antecedents in the punk feminism of The Slits and the androgynous eroticism of Lou Reed, and her artful ambition channels Kate Bush.