|
| 
| Artist: Portishead
Label: Mercury
List Price: $13.98
Buy New: $6.59
You Save: $7.39 (53%)
New (51) Used (20) from $6.25
Rating:  165 reviews
Sales Rank: 309
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 001114102
UPC: 602517664005
EAN: 0602517664005
ASIN: B0016HNOXQ
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 26-30 of 165
Courageous but difficult release - and a disaster as a party CD May 5, 2008
Rich Grace (Guerneville, CA United States)
7 out of 13 found this review helpful
After two careful listens, it's very clear that Portishead was determined to avoid the commercially recognizable sound from their earlier CDs. They succeed dramatically. Do not buy "Third" expecting an approachable extension to their genre-defining trip-hop sound. Adrian Maben's use of the wah pedal is completely gone, and in fact he's not as heavily used on this disc. There's also absolutely no tying to Gibbons' stellar solo work, which has largely disappeared from the market anyway. Geoff Barrow dominates this disc sonically and very likely in the songwriting department as well. The drum parts are even sparer than previous releases and the mix is deliberately quiet and subtly muffled, although very clean even in the MP3s. The noir vibe is completely gone. This is basically rock music written by Samuel Beckett.
In fact, this disc reminds me more of Massive Attack's 100th Window than anything else I've heard from this band - bleak, depressing, and sonically uninviting. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as the intention is to take their substantial fan base to a new place and recognize that they've grown and changed as musicians and can't or won't give their ravening public another "Glory Box." In that goal, I feel Portishead succeeds only intermittently, because the music on this disc is so resistant to accessibility for the most part.
The first four tracks, "Silence," "Hunter," Nylon Smile" and "The Rip" probably convey a more recognizably Portishead sound than the rest of the disc. "Silence" produces a fairly balanced sound with the spare but steady rhythm, heavily distorted guitar parts and Gibbons' impersonal wails about another failed relationship (at least that's what the lyrics seem to convey). "Hunter" provides interesting shifts between distorted instrumental interludes and a dark, stalking instrumental background for Gibbons' haunting vocals, and comes closest to the old Portishead sound. Likely the most accessible track on this disc is "The Rip," which applies a nylon-string guitar to establish the basic harmony of the song paired with a gorgeous Gibbons vocal. The tune then steps up with a strong sequencer part echoing the guitar patterns and takes the song in an emotionally moving direction. At this point I was very optimistic for the rest of the CD.
Most of the rest of "Third" is brutally depressing and deeply dissonant at the same time. With the exception of "Deep Water," a lovely ode to suicide that almost sounds like a church hymn, there's very little here to grab a listener who loved their previous work. "Small" uses a cello-like synth part along with two-part vocal harmonies and another dissonant intrumental break. Don't play this stuff at a party. That is, unless the party features lots of aggressively challenging art and perhaps an S&M station or two, or at least some blond bare-chested Germans wandering around in leather chaps. (Now is the time on Sprockets when we daaahhhnce.) DARK is the operating word here.
I have a strong suspicion that many people will feel like they HAVE to like this disc, it being what it is and whom it's from. (Sarcasm) No pressure. If you're not sufficiently hip or discerning because you don't appreciate "Third," just go back to your meaningless middle-class existence and LEAVE US COOL PEOPLE, DRESSED IN OUR COOL BLACK CLOTHES, ALONE! (/sarcasm) My guess is that attitude would be one which the band itself would reject. I personally think it's pretty cool that Portishead is back working together and wanted to do something challenging to reject the explosive commercialism surrounding their previous work. But if you expect another "Dummy," you will be sorely disappointed.
Unfortunately, Portishead just can't help it - they've produced a new disc that is the very essence of indie rock for the post-Bush era.
 do NOT listen to while driving.... May 7, 2008
H (Portland, Or)
7 out of 15 found this review helpful
because you will more than likely fall asleep.
boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring
first off : i am a HUGE fan of portishead! i have eagerly waited for this cd to be released...what a disapointment! there are about 3 songs total that i can listen to without skipping halfway onto the next song.
i really am trying to give it the "ol college try" but it has become increasingly difficult..
i only gave them that extra star for trying to be different, albeit horrible.
sorry portishead...nice try...hopefully the remixes will be more on par of what we know & love of you!
 You will enjoy this album if you get over trip hop. May 13, 2008
Nam Pho (jersey city, nj)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I really love this new portishead. I am kind of glad that it took them more than 10 years to put out this album. If it were to come out any earlier, I would probably hated it simply because its not trip hop. You know that sound: hip hop beats, lush/cinematic string arrangement, turntable scratches, old film score samples. That was the sound that most people love but that sound have reached it peak in 1998. This is now, portishead have moved on and they offer something new that is really good. Its not a difficult album at all if you give it a listen. The album is melodic, beth still have a great voice and some songs I find a certain groove to them. The album is dark but its catchy. They are still an interesting band. Leave trip hop back in '98 and enjoy portishead now.
 DON'T BUY IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! June 7, 2008
S. Lewis (Seattle, WA)
7 out of 18 found this review helpful
I've been listening to Portishead for well over 10 years now and I never get tired of hearing Dummy, Roseland, or their self titled CD over and over again. I don't have enough fingers to count the number of people I have turned on to this band. I love their music so much! They always put me in the best, chilled-out mood.
In all honesty, this CD sucks so bad that I threw it away.
I know that they were trying to do something different from their norm, and they did just that. If you liked any of their previous albums, I just don't see how you could enjoy this new stuff. The only people that might like this CD, are people that don't know Portishead or people that like terrible noise.
I, like many others, was very excited to hear that they were coming out with a new album. What a dissapointment it was to hear how much damage 10 years time could do to a band.
DON'T BUY THIS ALBUM!!!!!!!
The most satisfying album I've heard in years May 1, 2008
M. Popke (Denver, CO United States)
6 out of 12 found this review helpful
Well, it's been eleven years since Portishead's last studio album, but it's finally here. The aptly named third album, Third, is about as satisfying as albums get. It's hauntingly beautiful and wholly representative of what Portishead is capable of. Far from falling behind the rest of the music scene in the last decade, the band has managed to craft one of the most original-sounding albums I've heard in years.
Who invented trip hop is a matter of debate to some people, but for my two cents, there is no argument about who defined the genre. Massive Attack, Tricky and Portishead. If you think of trip hop as one big Venn diagram, those are the three circles which represent all of trip hop's possibilities and every trip hop act falls somewhere under their influence. It's practically the definition of the genre: A band is a trip hop act if you can put them somewhere in that Venn diagram.
This makes Portishead one of the three pillars of trip hop and their latest album not only cements their already formidable standing in the genre, but it expands the band's sound into uncharted territory and may force other bands to rethink their own conceptions of the scene as a whole.
Beth Gibbons' vocals are amazing--not just like they already were in earlier efforts, but vastly improved. Her voice has clearly changed slightly over the last decade (no surprise) and her range seems to have extended greatly and her control over difficult vocal transitions in songs like We Carry On is truly mind blowing at times.
Utley and Barrow work their characteristic magic as well, Utley contributing exactly what he needs to, nothing more and nothing less, perfect in every way and Barrow pushing the music forward, sometimes relentlessly urgent and pensive in the samples and beats chosen as the musical backdrop. Every element in these songs has been heard before, though not all in Portishead songs, but never have they been arranged quite like they are on Third. Even the band's earlier albums never sounded like this, incorporating elements from industrial, old old school German techno, folksy jazz guitar riffs, and some truly jarring inter-track transitions that feel like you've just been run into a brick wall.
Third is one of the most vaguely unsettling albums to come around in a long time and yet it still feels so good to listen to. At no point does it let you rest and just sit back and fade into the music. The constant sense that you never know what's going to come next always lies just under the surface, drawing you in closer, forcing you to listen attentively waiting for the other shoe to drop. And when it finally does, it's so rewarding that you can't help but listen even closer, waiting for the next surprise. It's like some kind of twisted pavlovian experiment, each reward surpassing the last until the album finally ends, beckoning you to start over from the beginning and go again (and again, and again). The term "rewards multiple listens" doesn't even begin to describe the complexity of this disc, and yet it seems immediately accessible, enjoyable from the drop of the first beat.
Third is ultimately an exercise in contradictions. It's soulful and mechanical. It's a hauntingly retro throwback that's still painfully cutting edge. It's smooth and jarring, soothing and unsettling. It's uncomfortable and inviting. And throughout it all, it's achingly beautiful. I haven't heard anything like it in years if I've heard anything else like it at all.
The first track, Silence, has got to be the most perfect intro track ever. In five minutes it not only completely encompasses everything Portishead has done before but brings you screaming right through the last ten years of silence and straight into Portishead's new sound. It's like a recursive acronym with the recursive, self-descriptive element at the end of the string. It begins by building on where Portishead left off and then just keeps building and building upon itself until it finally (and rather abrubtly) just stops dead--straight into the next track, Hunter, which picks up some of the band's old torch music sound but tweaks it just enough to sound like no other song you've ever heard. It's a bold proclamation right from the start, "Yes, we're back. Yes, we're still Portishead. No, we're not remaking Dummy."
And that's really the only theme throughout the whole album, Portishead is back and better than ever. God only knows what's going on under the surface here. The band is only slightly less reclusive this time around (every publicity shot I've seen of Beth still captures her looking at the ground and nowhere near the camera) so explanations are scarce. It's so experimental as to be almost opaque and yet it's so damn good that you can't help but keep listening and trying, always trying to figure out what it all means. Absolutely amazing. I only wish they were touring the US right now and not Europe so I could see them perform some of the new material live.
|
|
|
We'll be adding even more exciting features to assist you in the coming year.
Thank you for shopping at the Depot.com online shopping depot.
©2008 Depot.com | |
