Track Listing

1. Silence
2. Hunter
3. Nylon Smile
4. The Rip
5. Plastic
6. We Carry On
7. Deep Water
8. Machine Gun
9. Small
10. Magic Doors
11. Threads

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #293 in Music
• Released on: 2008-04-29
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk
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

About the Artist
Portishead are a band from Bristol, England, named after the nearby town of the same name, 12 miles (19 km) west of Bristol.

History

The band was formed in Bristol, UK in 1991, by Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons and Adrian Utley. After releasing a short film (To Kill a Dead Man) and its accompanying music, Portishead signed a record deal with Go! Beat Records.

Dummy (1994)

Portishead's first album, Dummy, was released in 1994 and the first single was 'Numb'. In spite of the band's aversion to press coverage, the album was successful in both Europe and the United States (where it sold more than 150,000 copies even before the band toured there). Dummy spawned two hit singles, "Glory Box" and "Sour Times", and went on to win the prestigious Mercury Music Prize in 1995.

Portishead (1997)

After their initial success, Portishead withdrew from the spotlight for three years until their second album, Portishead, was released in 1997. The album's sound differed from Dummy, the main differences being that much of the music was composed and played by the band, not sampled from records, and had a grainy, harsher sound. Three singles, "Cowboys", "Over" and "All Mine" were released, the latter achieving a Top 10 placing in the UK.

Roseland NYC Live (1998)

In 1997, the band performed a one-off show with strings at the New York Philharmonic orchestra at Roseland Ballroom in New York. A live album primarily featuring these new orchestral arrangements of the group's songs was released in 1998. There was also a long-form VHS video of the performance, and a DVD followed in 2002, with substantial extra material including many early videos.

Hiatus (1999-2007)

For the next few years, the band members concentrated on solo and other pursuits, until in February 2005, the band appeared live for the first time in seven years at the Tsunami Benefit Concert in Bristol. Around that time Barrow revealed that the band was in the process of writing its third album. In August 2006, the band posted two new tracks on its MySpace page--described by Barrow as "doodles". Around the same time, Portishead covered Serge Gainsbourg's "Un Jour Comme un Autre (Requiem for Anna)" on the tribute album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited.

Return

On October 2, 2007, Portishead stated that the new album, titled Third, had been mixed and was nearly complete, and was due for release in April 2008. On December 7-9, 2007, the band curated the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Minehead, England. The festival featured their first full live sets in nearly 10 years. They premiered five tracks from the new album, provisionally titled "Wicca", "Hunter", "Machine Gun", "Mystic" and "Peaches".

Third (2008)

Third is due for release on April 28, 2008. The band announced: "The album has 11 tracks and is 49 minutes 13 seconds long", and the track titles have been disclosed.On January 21, 2008, a European tour to support the album was announced, together with a headline spot at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 26, 2008. As well as their main recorded output, Portishead have been involved in a large amount of remixes and collaborations with other artists.

Customer Reviews

Temporary Ear Candy - But Deficient In Center
I cannot say that i'm a fan of Discordinant sound.
Many a musical snob calls this intelligent music.
I call it noise.
It doesn't take rocket science to create garbles of mathematical
sound. Just an analytical mind, & a want to stray far from center.

This release is very disappointing in my estimate.
Not in the fact that it is indeed so unlike old Portishead, but that it lacks in any firm tonal center for much of the duration.
As soon as you begin to want to connect to something, it is quickly ripped from underneath you.

There have been many geniuses that have pushed the bar far from the norm
but have maintained a central tonality in their work.
This is in my estimate where genius lies. You can play with time signatures,
tempo's, progressions, etc; Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, King Crimson, Prokofiev, Gorecki,
indian raga's & so on & manage to push the envelope.
But no center, then there's emptiness.
Like building a summer cottage without a foundation & expecting that a summer home can be a permanent home.
It falls apart.
It's fun for the immediate moment, but you quickly lose interest.

There are elements of mind & ear candy on this recording for certain.
However for me it is very temporary. Then i have no want to listen again for a good while.
Stereolab has done similar, but much warmer work over the past 7-8 years.
This cd isn't so much groundbreaking to me, as it is trendy.
For a generation of listeners who really have stopped listening with the decline of the trip-hop era,
or have been forever trapped therein it sounds like a revelation.
The name Portishead carries the weight.
Much like several other bands that had legendary cult followings during their respective era's,
only to take a long hiatus & then re-appear with an updated sound.
People were waiting & waiting, with the want for something to embrace.

Sounds like:
Elements of cold electronic like the algorithmic Autechre,
minus some of their rhythmic structure,
added elements of the coldest of Bjork's post Nelee Hooper vocal arrangements,
Lo-fi analog synth, via Stereolab,
but run through filters to once again create a very cold,
& detached feel.
Elements of the signature Portishead scattered to & fro.

Holding on to an edge
Like so many belated follow ups, the pioneering "trip hop" act's self-explanatory release feels partially out of touch, but perhaps that has benefits when the experimentation commences in earnest. The entire process can shift from sounding effortlessly fresh to hopelessly contrived a little too jarringly.

A 5 Star Masterpiece - #1 for 2008
I have been a Portishead fan from the start and at first I was a little uneasy with the heavyness of the music on this Third disc. Now that I have listened to it over 200 times, I must say it is my #1 pick of 2008. Portishead continues to evolve and this is the future. They are the top of the "trip hop" food chain and as for the other reviews that dogged this "don't you evah," and you wouldn't know good music if it beat you toa pulp. This is a work of Art and deserves the highest of recognition. Buy it, listen to it and then listen again. If it doesn't blow your mind then save it for your future mind. It is way ahead of it's time.