dark, complete, and perfect. | Third

A new sound | Third | Portishead

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	• Third Portishead Mercury, 2008 average customer review:based on 151 reviews view larger image
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STOP IT!!!

That's right, STOP IT fellow reviewers!!! Stop comparing Portishead albums. Each album is unique, beautiful and distinctively Portishead: electronic, dynamic, ambient, driving, moody, poetic. If you had never heard Portishead music before (assuming you like edgy electronic rock to begin with) and were given the Third album as an introductory to their music you would either fall in love with it (or not) just as much as you would (or wouldn't) with either one of their other two albums. It's the substance of their music that should be qualified regardless of the time period in which it was produced. Having said that, Third is marvelously musically Portishead, It'll shut you down and turn you on.

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dark, complete, and perfect.

You ever find those albums by artists you respect that prove to you they're geniuses at work? Those albums that, while you're listening, stop you from doing, or even thinking about, anything else? This is that album. It's haunting, arresting, at times beautiful, other times creepy, and ALWAYS courageously out there. This album has balls. You'd think, after 12 years, they'd just get back together and do something for the money, and I'm so pleased to share that this is not the case.

To put it simply, if you liked Portishead back then, and you feel that your musical taste was somewhat effected by their previous work, you will love this evolution. 'Dummy' and 'Portishead' are timeless in their own right, and 'Third' just takes it leaps and bounds further.

Jeez, I usually have SOMEthing bad to say about new music these days, but not here. This is why I felt the need to review this one, because if I could influence just one more person to buy it and experience it, then I've done my part as a big music nerd/junkie. :) ENJOY!

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A new sound

Portishead has always kind of had a bit of a "dinner party" sound to it, the kind of music you can play in the background at a party and it be recieved well. Beth Gibbon's singing and lyrics of profound uncertainty, little claustrophobic feelings of unrest and lonliness are haunting, charming even nostalgic...

Third takes on a different sound opening with Silence there's still the sense of haunting and claustrophobia but the sound is more desperate, more active, the rest of the album is undeniably Portishead, but you'll hear more samples, more effects, more dischordant activity and while a good album I feel it should be treated as a separate work from Dummy and Self Titled this album has a distinct sound to itself.

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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 Pattison

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