Music : Third

Rating: - Awful Awful Awful.
As you might guess from the title, I don't like this one bit. Loved their first two albums, and the live in New York CD, and have been waiting for this third album for years. But it is awful to the point where I can't listen to it. It's like Eric Morecambe said - all the notes are there, but not necessarily in the right order. It gives me a headache every time I turn it on. What were you thinking Beth? Look out my copy on Amazon Marketplace! Erm, it's brilliant, you must buy it...

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Rating: - The gap between releases shows....
We all know and love 'Dummy' and even quite liked the difficult second self-titled album but then we had to wait a long time for the 'Third' to show up - and I think that's it's problem.

Any good band should progress over time and change their sound and Portishead have obviously done so in the years they have been away. Trouble is, we were all expecting something Dummy-esque from Third but having missed out on the evolution got an album which is pretty far from it.

Some of the tracks are very hard to listen to (Machine Gun being the worst), others are fairly non-offensive yet ordinary and one or two are real gems and I wish they lasted a bit longer.

I think that if I had heard the evolution from 'Portishead' to 'Third' I'd be more forgiving but this is so different (and hence I am so disappointed by it) that I can only give it 2 stars and hope that the next album is not quite so far away, either in time or sound.

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Rating: - Not worth the wait
Fine, Dummy was so cutting edge that it sounded horribly dated horribly quickly. But it was wonderful. This isn't. It's harsher, more electronic. Not necessarily a problem in itself. Only they forgot to write any songs. They've gone all Radiohead - I imagine they felt they were too popular so decided to disappear up their own back passage to show how muso and serious they are. Disappointing.

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Rating: - Not so good
I've been waiting some time for their third album to come out, I seem to remember their website said they were recording and it would be out soon - this was in the late 90s. Anyway after a longer wait eventually there it was. First listen - hmm, give it another go - is it a grower? Not so sure. After a bit of a break and a "third" listen I, unfortunately, have to say it's not a good album. There is virtually nothing here that makes me want to listen again. Fellow Bristolian Tricky has also released an album this year and while he's developed different styles throughout his career I feel his music has always stayed fresh. Portishead on the other hand appear to have tried to do something different, challenging and artistic here but there is no soul, message or feeling in it so most of the songs come across as w..k pretending to be art. Which they undoubtedly are.

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Rating: - A classic....just give it time.
Just had a read of some of the other reviews for this album. While everyone is entitled to their opinion, could I please ask that you doubters out there give this wonderful piece of music a chance.
Portishead have tried something a little different from their last studio albums and I think that they have come up with something magical.
If you havent got into it straight away, it may be one of those albums you forget about for 6 months or so, and then find it hiding under a copy of "master of puppets". If this is you, I urge you to listen again with clear ears to "we carry on", "machine gun" and "threads". You might just find that it was worth the wait.