Beth Orton's third studio album Daybreaker finds her in a rich and resolute musical landscape. Both musically and vocally, Beth has captured something magical on every track. You can hear the sparkle of something truly special resonate from the 10 songs contained within. Where earlier albums Trailer Park (1996) and Central Reservation (1999) saw Beth's songwriting blossom beyond her early forays in the world of dance music, it is with Daybreaker that she finds her most self assured and confident stride, her lyrics imaginative and richly evocative, her voice spine-tinglingly soulful and emotive.

Whilst renowned for her eclectic tastes in collaborators, Beth has remained with the same band of core musicians since her 1996 debut. The talented gaggle of instrumentalists which make up Beth's band consist of Ted Barnes (guitar), Sean Read (keyboards), Ali Friend (bass) and Will Blanchard (drums), the perfect team to provide the backbone to Beth's distinctive sound.

The songs on Daybreaker have a lucid clarity that makes them the best of her career. The imagery of Beth's lyrics provides the perfect accompaniment to her blistering vocals. Whether she's singing about the complexities of human relationships, the dilemmas of romance or the uncertainty of dreams, she paints an intricate and wild landscape. Daybreaker itself is, according to Beth, a "made up word to describe the sun coming up, the start of a new day and the sound of a record playing as the dawn breaks." The album's themes of hope, expectation, love and the passing of time are expressed in the imagery of nature. First single "Concrete Sky" (co-written by Johnny Marr) is, she says, about "loving and being loved and the weight of your own expectations and insecurities."

The events which led Beth Orton to the place where she now resides, as Britain's most beloved female artist (a fact acknowledged at the 2000 Brit Awards when Beth won the title of Best British Female for her Central Reservation album) are filled with lucky coincidences and musical serendipity.

Born in rural Norfolk, Beth moved to East London with her family at the age of 14. Musically shaped equally by her parents' record collection and her brothers' punk rock tastes, her bedroom soundtrack ranged from everything from Nick Drake to The Slits, The Stone Roses to Rickie Lee Jones and all points in-between.

A misspent youth on the dancefloor led to Beth meeting William Orbit and a musical collaboration ensued. Beth first co-wrote and appeared on "Water From A Vine Leaf" on his early 90's Strange Cargo project. Over the next couple of years Orbit helped steer Beth's path towards a solo career with the extremely low-key Japan-only release "Super Pinky Mandy". From her work with Orbit she was approached by the fledgling Chemical Brothers and contributed the stand out vocal track "Alive Alone" on their 1995 debut album. Beth then spent a brief stint fronting freak-beat jazz combo Red Snapper, providing vocals for two singles: "Snapper" and "In Deep". And then she set about the serious business of finding a band and recording her first album.

Trailer Park was released in the fall of 1996 and produced by long-term Nick Cave collaborator Victor Van Vugt. From the desert sigh of first single, "She Cries Your Name", to the subsonic bleeps of Andrew Weatherall's beautifully rendered "Touch Me With Your Love", to Beth's tear-soaked cover of The Ronettes' "I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine", the album touched a vast audience. Beth Orton's genre-crossing soundscape provided a much needed dose of down tempo beauty to after hours parties everywhere, and struck a chord with everyone from seasoned folkies and country aficionados to club kids.

Beth's second album, Central Reservation, was far more reflective. After nearly two years of writing and touring the world, the album was released in the spring of 1999. It featured guest appearances from the likes of the legendary Dr John, Ben Harper, Mazzy Star's David Roback and Beth's long time folk hero Terry Callier, who dueted on "Pass In Time". Central Reservation also saw the first collaboration with Ben Watt, songwriter and producer in Everything But The Girl. The album was seen as a huge progression from the first and, as well as being hugely well received in her home country, brought her major league attention in the United States.

After several months in a tour bus Beth eventually succumbed to a stomach ailment she's suffered from since childhood and took the opportunity to return to London for some home comforts and physical recuperation.

At the start of 2000, Beth picked up her Brit Award and submerged herself in the process of writing and recording Daybreaker. Piecing together her best songs to date, Beth's luck with happenstance brought some new collaborators to the fold. A blossoming friendship with Emmylou Harris during the 1999 Lilith Fair Tour led to Emmylou agreeing to supply her distinctive vocals to "God Song", a down home country-tinged ballad which Beth feels is a direct descendant of the classic "Frankie and Johnny". "God Song" unites two generations of country soul as Emmylou twists and turns her voice around Beth's stunning vocal performance. As one would imagine, working with Emmylou was a highlight of Beth's career to date: "She brought so much in her performance…she brought her soul, her essence."

Intrigued by Ryan Adams' debut solo record Heartbreaker Beth invited him to accompany her on "Concrete Sky". (His soft, lilting vocals can also be heard at the end of "God Song".) His bolstering backing vocals add an extra dimension to Beth's own outstanding performance. Ryan then asked Beth to sing one of his own compositions, "This One's Gonna Bruise", a track Beth breathes incredible sonic life into. According to Beth, meeting Ryan was like having "an imaginary friend from childhood come to life."

Daybreaker features an array of production talents too: old friends Ben Watt, The Chemical Brothers, William Orbit and Victor Van Vugt all took their turn at the controls. Beth describes Watt's role as significant, "He heard what was there and took it above and beyond any expectations. He took it into Technicolor."

It is the album's title track which Tom and Ed Chemical Brother worked their intangible magic on. Having provided vocals to two more Chemical Brothers' albums (Dig Your Own Hole's "Where Do I Begin" and "The State We're In" taken from Come With Us) Beth asked them to return the favor and Daybreaker sees the trio creating a slinky verse which folds out into a huge clattering percussive chorus, Beth's vocal weaving between the cracks of each beat. "They actualized everything that the track could be completely", she explains.

"Anywhere" takes off with the driven riff and builds into space jazz that could be the soundtrack to Las Vegas at sunrise. The album's final track, "Thinking About Tomorrow" begins deceptively gently - a guitar, a voice and an antiquated drum machine - before building into a holy shiver of a chorus where Beth lays bare: I've been waiting for you/I've been created for you. Mixed by old comrade William Orbit, Beth describes his contribution as illustrating his "total respect for the band. He stripped it away to its bare bones of raw beauty."

And the same raw beauty can be found within the entire album, lurking deep within its textured palate and resonating harmoniously with every twist and turn. Last word must go to Beth herself. "This album was initially an experiment, one of embracing the excitement of making music rather than going into it with fear. And that feeling has carried through ever since."