"She Cries Your Name" is a song by Beth Orton. It was released as her third single and found on her 1993 debut album Superpinkymandy and again, as a slightly different version, on her 1996 release Trailer Park. It was also re-released in 1997, with a different set of B-sides.
Background
The earliest version of "She Cries Your Name" appeared on Orton's 1993 debut album Superpinkymandy. Another early version of "She Cries Your Name" appeared on the 1995 William Orbit album Strange Cargo Hinterland. The Strange Cargo Hinterland version removed Orton's verses from the Superpinkymandy version, but retains her chorus vocals and the original instrumentation. The third and best-known version of the track appeared on Orton's second album, Trailer Park. This version includes all of the lyrics from the Superpinkymandy version, but with different production.[3]
"She Cries Your Name" was the lead single for Trailer Park, released in September 1996.[4] The single was re-released in June 1997 with a different set of B-sides. The initial release peaked at #76, and the re-release at #40 in the UK official singles chart.
Video
The video for "She Cries Your Name" was shot in a trailer park in the Mojave Desert, which inspired the title of Orton's Trailer Park LP.[5]MTV placed the video into active rotation on September 16, 1997.[6]
Reception
Critics praised Orton's blend of genres on "She Cried Your Name," one reviewer for Option calling the blend of trip-hop, folk music, and soul music "smooth."[2]BBC London presenter Gary Crowley, speaking to Billboard, called "She Cried Your Name" "a fantastic piece of mood music, like a singer/songwriter with a club feel."[4]Spin critic Sarah Vowell called the single the standout track from Trailer Park: "a bittersweet ballad that tastes like tea brewed from tears."[7]
A 2009 retrospective in Pitchfork praised the single's longevity, in particular Orton's "cozy, impressionistic Americana sketches" of the lyrics and the production by Victor Van Vugt.
