Portishead – Third

• This review may soon be coming to a Craccum near you.

Portishead – Third (Island, 2008)

Bristol trip-hop outfit Portishead’s first studio album in eleven years, and their Third overall, is a bit of a mixed bag, with intimate acoustic guitar work and relaxed vocals partially marking a transition away from the heavy, dark world of their previous work.

Tracks like ‘The Rip’ and, in part, ‘Small’ bask in a sparse, warm environment and more closely resemble Gibbons’ recent solo work with Rustin Man – former Talk Talk frontman Paul Webb. ‘Plastic’, however, – especially as it appears in the running order, juxtaposed with ‘The Rip’ – dumps you straight back into the scruffy trip-hop world from which the group emerged in the mid-nineties. ‘Deep Water’ finds vocalist Beth Gibbons alone and plaintive, accompanied only by a ukulele and a moody, rich collective of backing vocalists. ‘Machine Gun’, the album’s lead single, has much in common with recent work by The Prodigy, a group which found popularity in the UK music scene around the same time as Portishead. The mass of electronic effects, including an extensively mined drum machine, is mismatched with the vocal track and hamper it so much that they become obtrusive and irritating in their repetitiveness. ‘Magic Doors’ is perhaps the most enjoyable track on the album, featuring Gibbons’ trademark vocals over a haunting string section and overwrought saxophones. The closer, ‘Threads’, takes on a lounge vibe at the outset, but soon returns to that familiar resonant Portishead sound, rounding out on a dirty repeating note that leaves a bad taste in your mouth -albeit a nice one, like having eaten too many sour lollies.

» Third at The Pirate Bay

~ by Hugh on March 27, 2008.