Portishead - Third
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Artist: PortisheadBrand: Mercury
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2008-04-29
Music Label: Mercury
Soundtracks:
- Silence
- Hunter
- Nylon Smile
- The Rip
- Plastic
- We Carry On
- Deep Water
- Machine Gun
- Small
- Magic Doors
- Threads
Free Music Notes for Third
Free Music Review: You're right, it's not trip-hop, it's just excellent music
Hit: 5 Stars
Portishead would like to apologize to their fans for not producing "Dummy 2" or "Portishead 3". Upon reading the 1-star reviews of the angry fans, they have realized their mistake and went back to the studio to record a new album with the same stuff they were doing 10 years ago... Wait, what?! Are you kidding me? If you want something that sounds like their previous albums there is a very simple solution: listen to the previous albums! Musicians evolve and try to create music that they feel is meaningful. Sometimes experimentation works, other times it does not. But for Portishead it has sure done wonders.
I love their first two albums just as much as anyone else. That does not mean though that I have a "Dummy" ruler with which I check if the new album fits the standards. It doesn't, and that's wonderful. The trip-hop is still there, the melancholy is plenty, but the band has also added new stuff to the mix: some alternative atmosphere (no wonder Radiohead did a cover of "The Rip"), some psychedelic undertones (the second half of "Small", reminiscent of early Pink Floyd), some powerful electronic beats (the mighty "Machine Gun", or the menacing "We Carry On"). They're changing dynamics inside the songs and on the album as a whole (just think of the odd pairing of the soothing "Deep Water" and the disturbing "Machine Gun") while at the same time providing a wonderful counterbalance with Beth's eerie voice.
There is a very smooth transition from the first to the last tracks. The first half of the album is a powerful reminder of why we love Portishead in the first place. The second half is a sign of things to come, and why some of us will still love Portishead even if they might sound nothing like in the beginning. Give it some time, come back to it later. It might just not be your album, but there's also a chance that it will start growing on you and then the reward will be tremendous. One morning you'll wake up hooked to the beat of Machine Gun and that will pretty much be it.
Third Poster
Portishead's Third has been a long time coming, the result of a lengthy creative torpor following 1997's dark, distinctly underrated album Portishead. Importantly, though, they've shaken it. While the core trio of Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow, and Adrian Utley remains, this is quite a different band to Portishead's 90s incarnation: gone is the slo-mo turntable scratching and smoky jazz feel, replaced by heavy, brooding rhythms, vintage-sounding electronics, and spindly guitar. Still present, though, is that sense of emotional fracture and deep gloom. "Silence" opens with a dense drum loop which suddenly falls away to reveal Gibbons' voice, cold but magnificent: "Wounded and afraid, inside my head/Falling through changes". "Nylon Smile", meanwhile, is a fine example of Third's occasional folksy edge, an acoustic song reminiscent of Leonard Cohen that, around its midpoint, lifts off on a propulsive electronic rhythm, Gibbons holding one clear, hard note as synthesisers bubble beneath. At times, it's a harsh and foreboding listen: the electronic drums of "Machine Gun" might put off the listener hoping for smooth dinner party fare. But Third is a brave and forward-thinking return, and one great enough to justify its lengthy gestation. --Louis PattisonDance & DJ Music CDs
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