What has been roughly ten years in the making finally sees release in the form of Third, the aptly titled release from the Bristol-based trio known in part for helping standardize trip hop in the mid ’90s. With the exception of a few scattered contributions and a Beth Gibbons solo album the group has been largely unspoken for in commercial recording since its 1997 self titled release, ever since mystique and anticipation have blossomed around the band’s absence. Now releasing an album of new material, matching its first two releases with an eleven song tracklist, Third may act as a question rather than an answer to the band’s layoff. Not only does Third’s release question whether or not Portishead is still a relevant in a changed musical landscape, but it also suggests asking whether or not the trip hop Chinese Democracy was simply worth the wait.
Performing its first full set in roughly a decade at last year’s All Tomorrow’s Parties: A Nightmare Before Christmas festival the group presented five new, and at the time yet-untitled, tracks. Capturing the interest of fans the world over, the new material was received with a stark feeling of separation when contrasted with of the sounds of both Dummy and Portishead. The thoughts of a music departure are quite suitable, for to call the new music trip hop would be a disgrace to both what the term came to represent and to the honest beauty of the variation in Portishead’s sound visibly apparent with Third.
“I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve you and I don’t know what I’ll do without you” moans Gibbons on “Nylon Smile.” Almost serving as an echoing conclusion to ’97s “Only You,” Gibbons now plays the role of a songstress who has achieved her romantic grasping. Much in the same sense, Third seems to repeal any bloated stabs at grandeur which may be expected, rather its tracks are heavy with reaching innovation and variety in place of excessive beathugging.
“The Rip” blooms with a stench of cheap ’90s ambiance, accounting for a sound that could be construed as appropriate of the album if out of the context of the rest of its songs. But its sound grows appropriately while consoling Gibbons’ lyrics, adjusting to their delicateness in a way that Air’s denser electronic may have melded with Charlotte Gainsbourg had her 5:55 taken a different direction. Likewise the track’s following sounds further shed any idea of repetition between this and any other Portishead album; “Plastic” determined in its minimalist orchestral texture, and “We Carry On” sounding of deceiving gypsy with Adrian Utley’s guitar acting as a deceptive monkey scouring for unguarded pocket change.
And as the album continues to relax, “Deep Water” surprises as a ukulele-driven ballad, waxing just before Third chomps with “Machine Gun.” The song’s Downward Spiral beat provides a uniquely hard shell, an environment surprisingly suitable for the harmonically quenching Gibbons. Its beat unfolds into a psudo-industrialist electronic rhythm, one a bit too basic to be a Squarepusher anthem, though it teases some of Tom Jenkinson’s earlier subtleties.
Perhaps “Threads” is as close to what was last heard from Portishead, post-Portishead. The song’s early violin moan captures a hair of what was 1998’s live Roseland NYC album, Utley and Geoff Barrow adding haze to the transparent sound. “I’m always so unsure” groans Gibbons as “Threads” begins to wail, possibly attributing a few words to the theme to not just the album but the group’s prolonged recording hiatus. When so much is expected of a band so talented, yet so remotely unusual, uncertainty is not merely granted but presumed; however Third as a solid body of work fulfills in its surprising assuredness, failing to even whisper suggestions that Portishead was ever irrelevant. Third is ten years worth of anticipation fulfilled.
Portishead “Threads” (mp3) (alt. link)
wow,the first track is gorgeous. There is a god, and she loves Portishead. Looks like Bristol is back, Martina Topley-Bird, Tricky will also have new material soon, now what about Massive Attack.
cheers/
jon jon
March 11th, 2008
Sir, the entire album is beautiful I can’t recommend it enough!
Chris DeLine
March 11th, 2008
Sultry,intense,moody…
Brilliant as ever!
Viva Portishead,
Elysabeth
Elysabeth
March 11th, 2008
excellent album, refreshing and inovative!
john
March 16th, 2008
Maginficent exploitation of textures and ambients leading Portishead standard sound into new directions! A perfect return!
Pedro
March 17th, 2008
[...] YouTube - Portishead - Machine Gun. First single for the new album, “Third”, and I’ve read that it’s supposed to be very good. [...]
at east-lake.net
March 19th, 2008
We Carry On is simply awesome - dripping with menace yet driving and alive all at once…
Christian
March 19th, 2008
I’ve been listening to the album, and it’s slowly creeping in. The new single is reflective of one extreme of the sound, but they’ve not lost any of the classic cinematic feel, if not acheieved through different means. Even though I have the MP3s, I can’t wait to go to the record store and pick it up and see the other until now starved Portishead-heads there too. It’s a cultural thing!
Allen
March 20th, 2008
I think it’ll be well worth the money - really interested in getting the box set but at a whopping $80 I’m a little hesitant!
Chris DeLine
March 20th, 2008
amazing!
post-modern-portishead!
wallace lima
March 21st, 2008
After listen this album a THIRD time, iam shure its shit. Sorry.
Maggi M.
March 23rd, 2008
the entire album is amazing in its own way.sure it differs from their earlier work,but i feel that’s a good thing.to me,this album is even darker and more serious than their earlier work.i love it.
Chris Marlowe
March 24th, 2008
I like the term serious, really seems that way - doesn’t it?
Chris DeLine
March 24th, 2008
“Third is ten years worth of anticipation fulfilled.” Couldn’t have said it better myself..
SMEAR
March 25th, 2008
I’m listening to the album now and so far it’s brilliant. Machine Gun is an amazing song.
john
March 25th, 2008
They sound like a band who have just discovered old synths and are using them for the sake of it. It also sounds half finished. Some flashes of Portishead magic but not enough. Disappointing.
andy
March 29th, 2008
Third is dreadful, disappointing, tired and uninspired. Beth sounds frail and flat. The lyrics are pedestrian. It has none of the magic of Dummy. Portishead had one moment of sublime inspiration, and it’s been downhill ever since. Machine-Gun is a childish musical joke. The rest of the songs are moaning drivel and non-sense. This album is substandard and will - hopefully - have been forgotten in few months.
We’ll always have Dummy!!
AndaD
March 31st, 2008
The most adventurous and brilliant record in years. Only rival is the new Notwist. I want them on a double bill. Anyone who thinks this record is not beyond expectation is just looking for a new hair salon record. This is a personal, deep record.
MIchael
April 3rd, 2008
i love it. musicians have to do ART. art asks questions that may not have an answer… art that does not question anything is garbage…when hearing it i think of minimalism, abstractionism, WAR, a dark sea, dark, a dark room, also contemporary classical music. thanks a lot!
Hugo
April 5th, 2008
I agree, serious is certainly the main emotion I get from this album. I can’t say whether or not waiting 10 years for this was worth it, but as an album itself, I’m not dissapointed. It’s darker and maybe even more mature. I think that even the younger “thinking” crowd (thinking being the keyword) will appreciate this with what’s going on in our current society (and even in the music industry itself…I mean c’mon).
Anyway, I give this album a 9.
Jake
April 6th, 2008
gave this album a fair shot..listened to it for around 6-7 times… it appears to get on my nerves more and more each time. blows! not what i expected
A.R.
April 6th, 2008
I really don’t get it. Its lacking in soul, passion and the lyrics are terrible.
I have written a full review here:
Portishead Third Review
Tony
April 7th, 2008
Isnt “Deep Water” just ripped from the ukulele song in the jerk?!
Raymond
April 8th, 2008
Terrible. Total waste of bandwidth, Im just glad I didnt waste money on it. its the noughties equivalent of the Stone Roses Second Coming
eggy Lynn
April 10th, 2008
Hard work - but it should be worth it!
Babba Lomax
April 11th, 2008
[...] band’s first single in roughly a decade, with Juvenile creates something raw yet unsettling. Portishead’s new material is brilliant, but the beat from “Machine Gun” doesn’t offer itself up as something as readily [...]
Culture Bully » Blog Archive » This Week in Mashups 04/12/2008
April 12th, 2008
Sorry, folks, the implication that people who don’t like this album are “unthinking” or “hair salon record” junkies is as inappropriate as it is patronizing. I love offbeat, creative, innovative, emotionally engaging music, and this album sucks quite badly. Minimalism for its own sake is not a badge of artistic pride; it’s just boring. There were maybe one or two brief emotional tugs in the entire work, and they were quickly smothered by the flat, warbling, aimless, self-indulgent delivery.
Quack
April 13th, 2008
omfg best album of 2008 by far.i’m not a trip hop fan,im a heavy metal fan but i can admit tha portishead are truly gods…
harry
April 15th, 2008
This is obviously a marmite album. Love it or hate it. I’m totally disappointed that they came out with what seems to be the theme tune from the Terminator movie.
It is just annoying, monotone blandness.
Just seen Machine Gun performed on Jools. Watched the band members bob their heads, instensely, in time to…..oh yeah; somebody hitting a drum machine really badly. Cack!!!!
I think it is a case of the ‘Emporers New Clothes’.
Andy
April 15th, 2008
Apparently the album in its entirety has already been remixed by Noise Floor Crew. I got a preview in my inbox and it’s brilliant. I hate to say that I might actually like it more than Third. Here’s what I’ve heard so far. Apparently the rest is coming?
ZIP FILE
http://www.mediafire.com/?bxns1zoqdsq
DOWNLOAD LINK
SEPARATE FILES
Songs in ZIP
01 We Carry on (remixed)
http://www.mediafire.com/?syxzw9go4fm
02 Machine Gun (remixed)
http://www.mediafire.com/?xzmmnmgmyrg
03 Nylon Smile (feat WAR GAMES)
http://www.mediafire.com/?zg1sjzii0j9
04 Magic Doors (remixed)
http://www.mediafire.com/?mwjfziy2ycc
Lupe
April 15th, 2008
We Carry On is my favourite song. Sounds like an MRI scanner but somehow in a good way.
Kautz
April 22nd, 2008
I love Beth Gibbons vocally, but I was not impressed with this album at all.
Brad Hart
April 23rd, 2008
Wow, I just got a chance to listen the remixes by Noise Floor Crew and I agree, much BETTER.
Robert
April 24th, 2008
It was a long wait, but it was (mostly) worth it. I cant say I’m as blown away as I was when first hearing “Dummy”, but it is good to hear some new output, and to allay the fear that “Third” would go the way of Mr Rose’s new album (although I think most people are kinda beyond caring about that record). Not sure “Machine Gun” was the best first single - it seems to suggest quite a shift in sound, that the rest of the album doesn’t really back up. Not sure if this will be destined to be a
classic, up there with the first two records, but it does have its moments - I can’t get “Magic Doors” out of my head - the chorus is probably as close to ‘anthemic’ as I’ve heard from them - when that piano chord hits - shivers down the spine! Lets just hope it doesn’t take 11 years for the next record!
Richard
April 25th, 2008
I likes. But I agree that I still yearn for a more natural progression from Dummy and Phead. The album still holds a theme and you can’t front on Beth’s voice. There hasn’t been a triphop album with consistent quality bitter sweetness. Massive Attack sounds so mediocre now after Mezzanine. Many either went acoustic (not a bad thing) or electropop (not always bad either) or just plain boring. I hope what they have next falls somewhere between 3rd and Phead..a little more horns and strings and the tripped out bop.
cla
April 26th, 2008
is English not your native language? it would take more time than I care to invest to point out the many solecisms in this howler of a review. you do not write well. read up! read Marcus, Christgau, and practice writing. think about your sentences. no one will care what you think unless you know what good writing sounds like. do you read anything???
mmm
April 27th, 2008
I’d be lying if I said that I’d ‘been waiting 10 years for the new album’, I thought Dummy was great but wasn’t holding my breath waiting for the follow-up and I find it hard to believe that most of the people that are saying ‘was it worth the ten year wait’ were ticking off days in their calendar in anticipation.
I must say when I stumbled onto the pre-release interviews and read quote alluding to a ‘new’ sound, I expected the worst - a feeble attempt to escape from their much maligned trip-hop pidgeonhole by attempting to be ‘experimental’.
I must say, however, that even if that was their aim they’ve created a very good album. It most certainly is a departure from their ‘old’ sound, and they could’ve taken the easy route and impressed their middle-aged, middle-class, chill-out compilation buying contingent of fans by releasing a ‘downtempo’ album but instead they’ve created a dark, brooding and, without wanting to resort to cliché, menacing album.
It gets a thumbs-up from me. Though you would’ve though ten years on Gibbons’ might’ve been prescribed some anti-depressants.
Sam
April 28th, 2008
third can only be described as a benchmark in popular music. It is a plea for change, a marking in a new sound. Portishead was always about progression and innovation and it saddens me that people are missing this point. This will be a cult classic in due time.
Chrinx
April 28th, 2008
[...] band’s masterpiece. So, for the most part the reviews have been positive, such as one from Culture Bully, but also check out what the fans have to say on Portishead’s official [...]
Portishead - Third
April 29th, 2008
Music is taste, but this album is musically really a disappointment. Especially if you compared it with their older work, I miss the nice harmonies, the sublime melodies and well-produced beats. It’s all very basic and boring.
Bart
April 30th, 2008
Why do people keep knocking this album? I think it is brilliant; best one yet. Best songs: We Carry On, Machine Gun and Magic Door
Dan
April 30th, 2008
One thing is obvious: Third seems to be a polarizing album, garnering either high praise or ugly abuse from legions of fans. I can’t quite find myself fitting into either category. Certainly, this can’t be considered Portishead’s very best (and I think those positioning themselves behind that comment know deep inside it’s not the case). However, the unwarranted and obtuse attacks on the album are nothing but uncalled-for gibberish. Indeed, there’s no accounting for taste, but to suggest that Third is anything less than a solid effort in a new direction is just absurd. Not the best of the year, but assuredly not the worst. I give it a B (I am a teacher, after all).
JSL
April 30th, 2008
I am not into grading albums, and yes of course it’s a matter of taste, but their earlier stuff is undeniably more melodic and accessible. This album is filled with discord in the majority of songs, and where it’s not it’s depressing. Maybe that’s what they were going for, I mean this is the same reason I can’t stand Stravinsky, but lots of people think he’s a genius. This album takes Portishead into Stravinsky of trip hop, and I’m sad to say I am not a fan.
Konstantin
April 30th, 2008
To everyone who is raving about this albulm! Go back and listen to the brillaince of their last 2. This lacks those amazing chorus lines and powerful melodies. They should have kept their legacy by not releasing anything more. The albulm sounds like noise to me. Portishead has past their peak. Sorry.
Disappointed
April 30th, 2008
I agree with Bart and Tony and I’ve been waiting 10 years for this. whilst I was expecting something different - all bands have to evolve - it feels souless and almost unfinished. After 3 proper listens through I have to say I feel it’s well below what I expected and I can’t see it growing on me. The other feeling I got was that they’d sat down with Reason and just knocked it out. Machine Gun (almost) sounds something I’d knock up with a drum look, phaser and flange! I don’t want to be controversial and yes it’s a taste thing but this is far and away from what I was expecting.
onemeg
May 1st, 2008
The arguments about this album are very similar to the arguments I heard whe Human After All came out. I think this album is Portishead’s - Human After All. Personally I find that this album has a very deceptive depth to it and can really only be appreciated with undivided attention and an excellent stereo system.
Josh
May 1st, 2008
It sounds like Beth’s solo albums. The title is also… kinda… “Third?”
My Nose Hurts
May 3rd, 2008
I can’t rewind this. I’m using the cd as a coaster for “tea-time”. Why didn’t they just create another band and title this something else rather than Portishead. Sorry, truly sad. : (
AL
May 5th, 2008
I`ve just listened it for the first time. I`m really disappointed so far.
As someone above wrote - It’s all very basic and boring.
Hope that it changes after a few listenings, but - to be honest - I don`t think it does.
MH
May 7th, 2008
Haha, everyone is talking rubbish and rating this album like music was an easily quantifiable thing. Its art, its music. You might hate it, you might love it, you might hate it then grow to loves it. Who cares? I listen to it and dont need people to rate it before I can enjoy it.
pk
May 10th, 2008
i have very limited understanding when it comes to some of the reviews i have just read. it seems that people are reaching for reasons to like this album, and to be honest i think you are cutting portishead too much slack. lets be honest here. the album is dire. machine gun goes nowhere; the synth at the end sounds directly lifted from the blade runner ost, we carry on sound like a pre-pubescent in their room crying into their ps2 controller. that may sound harsh, but hell it’s been ten years! i love portishead, dummy and the self-titled are amazing, but third sound like aphex twin fucking around on his laptop on an acid come down. horrible. but it’s okay for aphex to do that because he has released millions of albums. my problem is that portishead are held in great esteem, when they frankly they don’t have the output to warrant such status. and as for the whole argument about musical art, well derrr! of course music is art, but there are two kind of art. good art and shit art. i may be just stupid. i may not ‘understand’ the album and thats why i don’t like it. irrelivant. art shouldn’t make you feel stupid. it should make you feel enlightened, and third is an album that in my opinion reduces art to nothing and it is unfortunate that audiences are willing to accept this apparent void in creativity.
Niblo
May 12th, 2008
What happened to the beautiful, jazzy melodies? This completely sucks!
Carl
May 15th, 2008
bag of shite
Andy
May 16th, 2008
This reaction reminds me of Radiohead’s Kid A. If they changed their sound there’s a reason: they had to develop artistically. Luckily they don’t care about commercial reaction.
Doron
May 19th, 2008
I couldn’t disagree more with this review. The new album is magnificently beautiful!
Geoff
May 25th, 2008
Due to the breadth of experimentation this album has the potential to seed mutliple directions for the next decade.
‘Small’ is beautiful.
Erkat
May 27th, 2008
just the 50% is good… i love portishead… but, really it did not like a lot than the previous…
Ricardo Palomares
May 29th, 2008
well… i was ansious for this album because i was pretty satisfied with the previous work of portishead they represent the best time in my life, my adolensence, my furies, my love… so when i realise that they will take out a new album i didn’t know what to spect… the thing is that i forget about it and continue with my life then i went to a discs store just to pass by and i saw it there and i couldn’t belive it IT WAS THERE! and i didn’t doubt it i had to have it, i mean it’s portishead !
then with the disc in my hand and going back home i was confused because i thought maybe they just repeat themselves and this will be a shadow of the previous once… i played it and…
didn’t like it at the first time…
and didn’t want to play it again…. i prefered to wait a little bit and dedicate more time to do it again maybe later so meanwhile i played IN RAINBOWS from radiohead and i loved it!
in/rainbows… i mean
(sorry for the english)
mario
May 31st, 2008
but then i gave it another listening and NOW I LOVE IT!!
mario
June 3rd, 2008
[...] go read more reviews about this album: at the bbc, at culture bully, at pitchfork. Visit their official site, and their myspace [...]
Portishead's evolution. Their new album is great
June 4th, 2008
Where is the slo-mo turntable scratching and smoky jazz feel?
Looks like aliens abducted the real Portishead and replaced them with a bunch of second rate musicians and a monkey for a drummer!
We’ve been swindled…
chris
June 4th, 2008
Hehehehehe….less than 2 months out and already turmoiling…i knew this since “Roseland”, P sound would never be the same again…and now take it or leave it…well…i´m taking it!!! YES, I AM TAKING IT!!! “Machine Gun” was my first and so far my best moment on this one, and the album shows an x amount of progress in the sound, the acoustic and the stereophony rule, and THAT Portishead feel is still there…
Sooo, when even the most fierce (official) music reviewers give “Third” a 10/10, in a 8-10 proportion, surely i´m not wrong…One of the albums of the year?!?!
MarkusAudio
June 24th, 2008
Two things that stand out for me.
Firstly time and nostalgia will always accompany Dummy. Memories are replayed and rewound. Dummy became a standard soundtrack to many a boozy hangover and nights spent under the covers with loved ones. For this reason I was always going to struggle with ‘third’. Give ‘Third’ time. Give it experience. Give it success and failure. Give it sex, give it drugs, give it hope and give it fear.
Secondly ‘Third’ is not merely experimental. Sure, it sounds different, faster and edgier, but the emotional catches are still there. There are breathtaking moments of beauty, the album is full of shadows that unravel while being bathed in moments of pure, white light (listen to ‘rip’). The warm innocence of ‘deep waters’ is adjacent to elements of film ‘noir’ mixed with cold, unassuming percussion. The album is wonderful - Lets celebrate Dummy on Cryptonite.
Hugh
June 26th, 2008
Err…I seriously don’t know what to say I absolutely love Portishead but maybe they should have released it in September/ October when we are all getting in that depressively dim mood of winter, I don’t know I’m off to listen to it again maybe this time…
Boni
July 12th, 2008
This album is fresh, and makes me want to eat cottage cheese. for real.
Chipper Davies
July 15th, 2008
Portishead will always be relevant; the writer of this review never was. Dry up and blow away.
glarg
August 12th, 2008