Enduring Mix of Vulnerability, Musical Genres

Beth Orton’s filmy, pale slip dress outlined her thin frame Tuesday at the House of Blues, creating an impression of veiled vulnerability that reflected the barely concealed raw emotions behind her lush, electronica-infused mix of folk and jazz.

The English singer-songwriter garnered attention in the mid-’90s for blending acoustic and techno music, but the themes of melancholy, restlessness and need in her work have endured the hype. Tuesday’s performance revealed an adept grasp of her hybrid style, as you’d expect from an artist whose forthcoming album, “Daybreaker” (due July 30), features contributions from the English electronic team the Chemical Brothers as well as country-informed U.S. singers Ryan Adams and Emmylou Harris.

Playing guitar and crooning in a plaintive-to-soulful voice, Orton lightened the often somber two-hour set with between-song banter. Her backing sextet included cello, double bass, and violin--the better to achieve an organic sound that was surprisingly free of mechanism despite the electronic textures. She previewed new tunes such as “Concrete Sky” and “God Song” but also offered many older favorites, much to the capacity crowd’s delight.

Contrast played a part in such memorable moments as “Pass in Time,” where her voice’s ragged edge belied the feeling of peace found in ruminating on her mother’s death, and the solo acoustic turn on “Feel to Believe,” which downplayed the frustrated agony of the words.

Still, for all the dreamy atmospherics, the watercolor washes of emotion might have become tedious to those seeking strong hooks or melodies. But Orton made up for that with her understated yet powerful way of finding strength in emotional adversity.