Product Description

Imaginatively-titled third studio album from illustrious Bristolians whose 1994 debut "Dummy" broke trip-hop all over the world with its artful, haunting and melancholy fusion of torch song, sinister atmospherics and slowed-down hip-hop beats. Coming a full ten years after their last album, the live document 'PNYC', this record sees them going back to the source, digging in the crates for weird and wonderful samplesfrom prog rock, free jazz, techno, industrial and funk on which to work their twisted magic, as well as incorporating some of the folk influence that pervades frontwoman Beth Gibbons' solo work.

Track Listing

1. Silence - Claudio Campos, Portishead, Charlotte Nicholls
2. Hunter - Portishead
3. Nylon Smile - Portishead
4. The Rip - Portishead, Wendy Bertram
5. Plastic - Portishead, Team Brick
6. We Carry On - Portishead
7. Deep Water - David Poore, Portishead, Ben Salisbury, Team Brick
8. Machine Gun - Portishead
9. Small - Portishead
10. Magic Doors - John Baggott, Portishead, Stu Barker, Will Gregory
11. Threads - Clive Deamer, Portishead, Jim Barr, Beth Gibbons, Charlotte Nicholls, Will Gregory

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40 in Music
• Released on: 2008-04-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 49 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Portishead's Third has been a long time coming, the result of a lengthy creative topor 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

Customer Reviews

Sadly, this will collect dust at the back of my cupboard...
I like to think I have a pretty varied taste in music and have enjoyed previous albums from Portishead and Beth Gibbons/ Rustin Man but I'm afraid I really don't get this at all. This album has been compared as a frontrunner to album of 2008 but to me that sounds like making something trendy to be able to say you like something trendy.

If I'm being generous, I would maybe rate one or possibly two tracks, i.e. The Rip, as 2/3 out of 5 but for the rest...1 is on the kind side.

A previous reviewer has compared this to Marmite, which is apt. I don't like that either but I think I stand more chance of persuading myself to like that than this. I honestly can't see myself ever listening to this again so its either down to Oxfam or leave it in the back of the cupboard until I move house.

Prog-dub Snapshots of the Apocalypse
A soundtrack to some post-apocalypic world movie.
This is a wonderful album - to sit back and listen to and also to dance round the campfire!
There's elements of prog-rock but tastefully done in the dub style.
One weird thing about the songs though is that they seem to be amateaurishly put togeather and end too soon, but this is one of the spells that the landscape creeated by this music invites.
Worth every penny!!!

It is good
Reading the one star reviews, two things struck me:
1. Lots of them have listened to the album once (some not even once all the way through). Like all the great albums, this is a grower.
2. Why do they want more of the same? Frankly, 'Portishead' was an insipid rehash of 'Dummy'. 'Third' is a massive leap forward.

Album of the year.