Music : Third

Rating: - The best things come to those who wait.
Given the reservations of my review, I thought it would be an idea to revisit it after a few weeks of listening - it is so important to reflect on such things. Well, the interview stands. I am less reluctant to give 5* now - I think it is deserved. I would also say that I was wrong about no equivalents to Wandering Star - The Rip is easily of such quality, beautiful and trippy enough! I think I should also withdraw the "marmite" point - listen enough and you will realise the genius of Portishead. Almost perfect!!! ... back to the first review then:

Okay, I am one of those people who does want more of the same. Ever since 1995 I have wanted Portishead to release Dummy MKII. They haven't. They won't. And that's probably a good thing because it leaves Dummy as a classic of its time. However, I do wish there were more of a trip hop sound at least in some of the tracks.

Third is more like Portishead (the album) than like Dummy. It is rougher and again lacks the gentle melodies of their first album. If, like me, you harboured any hopes of a return to Dummy, your ears and brain might well have an adverse reaction on first hearing this album. Some of the tracks are indeed strange, unmelodic. At times Third sounds a little like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, at others like Stereolab. But Portishead do make it their own.

Some of the tracks on the album certainly remind me of the feeling of first hearing Portishead - AMAZING - The Rip, We Carry On, Threads, though there are no equivalents to Wandering Star or Strangers. Wonderful nevertheless. Others remind me of finally "getting" the second album.

Prepare yourself by getting rid of preconceptions and expectations, and then remember Marmite - you'll either love it or hate it. Perhaps I exaggerate with 5 stars, but it is very good in so many respects.

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Rating: - On Par With Dummy
Having listened it about 3 times throughout the last two days I've enjoyed more and more. The first song is what some might call an 'instant classic', as it shows that they are pushing away from they're old genre. However, and happily for me, the "depressing" (as some people like to call it) music comes back in soon enough, with as much style and grace as Dummy, maybe not as rememberable as all the tracks on Dummy, but certainly all unique which I always think is the most important feature of Trip Hop music. Also Matching Gun is annohter great song on the album, as is The Rip. But for me it is all about the first song.

Great album, go out there and get it!!!

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Rating: - Uneasy listening
Portishead's eponymous second album sounded like they'd spent the years since their debut listening to their own music, and as such, was an often chilling and minimalistic exercise in distillation and refinement. By the same token, it also made any further venture in their distinctive style artistically redundant.

As a result, Third is necessarily a different animal. The sound is at once broader and more claustrophobic. Gone is the scratching and heavy sampling, but still with us (thankfully) is the distinctive and imaginitive percussion work. Dark grooves are rendered uncomfortable listening with the addition of high sustained synth tones. Gibbons's vocals are as ever full of shame, doubt and regret at things she's done or not done, but occasionally a little more upbeat and direct. The album in general is uneasy listening, often beautiful, often noisy, often obtusely changing direction at mid-point or ending suddenly - "Silence", for example, cleverly clips out just as its proggish coda starts to get self-indulgent.

There is even comedy here, too. Yet the ukulele-led (yes really) "Deep Water" is possibly the most disturbing song on the album - hearing Gibbons sing about not being afraid makes one wonder who she's trying to convince, and she comes across as tragically deluded. The song works as a palate-clearer too: the deliciously torturous drumming of "Machine Gun" is all the more punishing for following such whimsy, and its despondent Morricone-esque synth coda is a welcome surprise. "Threads" is a perfect ender, with that enormous, plaintive bass pulse radiating across the landscape like the cry of some wounded Lovecraftian leviathan.

How tempting it would be to set up a lounge ensemble, a Rhodes piano, two turntables and a heap of percussion, stand Beth Gibbons up in front of them and have her wail torch songs until her heart bled. How brave it is, then, that Third is so unlike that concept that it isn't even the opposite of it, it's some kind of unfathomable fourth-dimensional tangent.

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Rating: - Take a deep breath
Am I allowed to be disappointed? Having waited this long I obviously wasn't expecting this to be like Portishead of old, and my congratulations go out to them for risking a hugely experimental album that risks losing serious fan base (including myself). I absolutely loved Dummy and Portishead, to the point that I rate "Roads" as my all time favourite track ever in my life. This has come as a shock.
I've only listened once and will take the advice of other reviewers in trying it a few times, possibly in a darkened room, to see if I can grow to enjoy it. It's a shame though because every track of their previous albums hit home with me as instant brilliance, this album I had to wait till track 8 (machine gun) before I started to take any interest, and even then I got bored half way through and had to skip on. The previous 7 tracks were tiresome and uninspiring, and something a group of teenagers could have put together in the 80s when messing with reel to reel and a few makeshift instruments.
I agree with other reviews that Beth's voice shines throughout but I think the diversion in styles will take a lot of getting used to and it's only because of my eternal love of everything else I've heard with Beth's voice in that I am prepared to persevere with the album to see if it grows on me the way it seems to have managed with others. I'm not hopeful though, and pretty glad I've not forked out for tour tickets as I was considering.

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Rating: - Less easy on the ears, but interesting
Dummy I found amazing, really great album. The 2nd album, Portishead, was good, but not quite as easy to listen to. The 3rd seems even more so like that. Still a great album, some good lyrics in there, interesting music.

As one review I read put it, it's not the sort of album you'd put on as background music for a dinner party, and they've been a little braver with their musical direction. Worth buying.