177 reviews
Sales Rank: 37

Genre: pop-music
Media: MP3 Download
Running Time: 0 Minutes

ASIN: B0018CA996

Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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Customer Reviews: Read 172 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Powerful vocals, meager instrumentation. December 26, 2008
Angry Mofo
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Popular music thrives on melodrama, especially when it's expressed by a vocalist like Beth Gibbons. The stylized, hyper-magnified fragility of her performances is the biggest strength of Portishead's Third. In "Nylon Smile," she pleads, "I don't know what I've done to deserve you, and I don't know what I'll do without you," and her voice veritably quivers with hurt, you can easily imagine her as a poor wounded bird, plaintively lamenting her cruel fate. In many songs, she dwells with similar helplessness and sensitivity on feelings like, "hoping I might change a little, hoping that I might be someone I want to be," "tormented inside life, wounded and afraid," and "I'm just emotionally undone, I can't deny I can't be someone else."

That's the predominant tone of Third, but Gibbons also does a magnificently calm, distanced tone in "Machine Gun," and becomes a bit warmer in "Deep Water" and "The Rip." Eventually, the melodrama feels more like the style of an old silent film, or a story by Stefan Zweig, than like typical nineties-style angst. Gibbons' vocal style has always recalled old torch songs, and she has lost none of her touch in the eleven years that passed since the last Portishead album. If anything, she's spookier, more mysterious now.

However, the music on Third is obsessively, insistently rudimentary, even for a minimalist decade like the 2000s. It's not "repetitive" in the sense that, say, Ladytron are repetitive. Third is full of surprises and changes: the abrupt ending of "Silence," a fast keyboard line suddenly interrupting the slow pace of "Hunter," a loud crescendo in "Small," glitchy effects in "Plastic." But these surprises have no musical content whatsoever. The keyboard line in "Hunter" plays a very simple scale, up and down; the crescendo in "Small" is a one-note keyboard line. Many songs prominently feature a shrill drone -- not a "droning keyboard line," as one might write about a post-punk album, but a plain, unadorned beeping sound, either continuous or repeated. "Silence" begins with one (around 0:30). So does "Magic Doors." So does "We Carry On." These are not small, insignificant details; they actually form the musical core of the album. Things get a little more exciting with the rare appearance of a distorted electric guitar, at the end of "Silence" and "Small," but there, too, it plays basic chords, covered in reverb.

The issue is laid out starkly in "Machine Gun." The drum track is lifted from New Order's "Blue Monday." Okay, fine: steal from the best, everything old is new again, and so on. But New Order's song had about a dozen different unforgettable hooks apart from the drum track. "Machine Gun" not only has no other hooks, it has no other music, except for a short keyboard line (heavily reminiscent of nineties MOD music) in the end. But for most of its duration, Gibbons sings over just this drum track. To add variation, they produce the drum track in two ways -- a cold "industrial" sound and a louder, clanging pot-beating sound. They alternate. The end. If not for the striking, cold clarity of Gibbons' voice, there would be nothing to discuss.

Not that it's all bad, but the good parts generally occur when the music doesn't try to call attention to itself, and retreats into the background ("Hunter," "Threads," "Deep Water"). Occasionally it is used to sort of gently guide the tone of Gibbons' vocal performance. The best such moment is on "The Rip," perhaps the best song on the album, where a slight increase in tempo leads to a warm, dreamy climax. When the music is at the forefront, however, it can be quite frustrating to listen to.

This style can be traced back to Radiohead's Kid A, particularly "The National Anthem," which also simulated musical techniques using essentially non-musical stand-in sounds. Occasionally there are hints of Bjork's Homogenic (the drum track in "Plastic" would have felt at home there), except without the pop moments. Overall, though, the sound of Third is closer to Volta, another musical simulacrum, featuring a wide array of instruments (diligently noted by reviewers) that failed to play anything of any interest at all.

The minimalism of Third is anticlimactic. Exactly like Kid A, the careful pace and the jarring sound suggest an album that requires careful attention and repeated listening, but in the end, the music reveals much less than it promises. It remains to listen to Third for Gibbons' often-amazing vocals, and treat the music as an occasionally pleasant backdrop.

5 out of 5 stars

Portishead not Portishead December 25, 2008
Wilbur Hoflich (Singapore)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I loved "Dummy," that first Portishead. It really takes me to a special place. When I heard that the band was releasing a new album after 10 years of silence, I was immediately intrigued. Yay, Portishead, had to pick this up the day it was released - anything to hear a bit more of Beth Gibbons' voice... The first listen to the album at work I wasn't so impressed, but that could be because of the environment (no comment). The first song starts off with some sample of a Spanish radio DJ saying something I can't understand. The song, "Silence," starts off with fast-paced drums and guitara chords and some keyboard. Lovely feedback, very soundtrack-y. Two minutes into the song Beth's voice comes in. Lovely. For some reason the song ends very abruptly. "Hunter" is very mellow, has nice feedback guitars in it. Songs become soundtrack, then there's "The Rip", which sounds like the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" as re-interpreted by Daft Punk, or perhaps Tangerine Dream. Nice stuff. Lots of snazzy drumming. "We Carry On" has Moog organs, trumpets, and Sonic Youth guitar wrangling, it is one of the more "challenging" tracks on the album. Yes, the beats are definitely a lot harder, sort of industrial compared to the old shuffle beat of "Dummy." Challenging, indeed.

2 out of 5 stars

unsatisfied December 22, 2008
Brian C. (Omaha, NE USA)
I was disappointed with this album. The only song I really liked was "Machine Gun". The rest are kind of boring. There is something missing, it just doesn't have that rich feel to it that the previous albums had.

5 out of 5 stars

"I saw a savior, a savior come my way." December 21, 2008
Matt Jacobs (Trumansburg, NY)
Third is the third (hey!) album by Portishead, one of the 90s' top trip hop bands, although from what I can tell it's not very close to what that sounds like. I don't have to be familiar with their earlier work though to know that this is one of the bleakest and most gripping albums I've heard in a while. It's one of those things you really have to listen to with headphones.

The overall sound is a sort of a downbeat industrial/electronic thing with a healthy mix of normal guitar and percussion added. Any remnants of hip hop scratching or whatever aren't there. The songs flow perfectly, with the instrumentation sparse when it needs to be and booming where required. It's another record that nails the balance of a cohesive tone while varying the sound enough to keep the songs unique and interesting. "Silence" has a quick drum beat and some dissonant feedback to play with the electronic sounds. In "Hunter", they go back and forth between the chirps and a more normal, slow guitar and drum thing. "The Rip" starts in with a plucking acoustic melody and eventually brings in quicker drums with an infectious electronic element. "Plastic" has the most obvious trip hop sound to it, I think. "We Carry On", as Pitchfork aptly mentioned, sounds a lot like a Clinic song, with its constant and off-putting beat. "Small"'s another track that bounces back and forth between styles. "Magic Doors" manages to work a piano in there along with some horns. The closer, "Threads", might be the most aggressive, with a nefarious twinge to it, and ends with a minute of a very angry sounding machine sound.

I've been ignoring one of the most important elements though, which is the vocal work by Beth Gibbons. Her voice is mournful and haunting, and fits perfectly with every track, and she sings the depressing lyrics in a very evocative, affecting way. Just look at two back to back songs, "Deep Water" and "Machine Gun", completely different musical styles, one a simple, acoustic, folksy number, the other pure minimalistic industrial with a few synth chords added in, both improved greatly by her singing. Third isn't exactly the most wonderful thing to listen to, but for what it's trying to do, it's one of the best constructed and executed works I've heard.

2 out of 5 stars

Bore-tishead December 20, 2008
Mooselover (NYC)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

It really baffles me why so many people like this album. It's boring, repetitive, dreary and soulless, and most of the songs don't go anywhere. You know, usually when a band takes ten years between albums, it's not a good sign. It's just too bad they didn't quit when they were ahead because their 90s work was great.

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