Music : Third

Rating: - Indeterminable songs for mongs
Background music - yes - but other than that sorry i just dont get it ... a collection of beats and signing with no real direction or melody ... if you're a fan then well done you obviously got it - but this is a bit to trippy & out there for me ...

Give me Muse any day of the week!!

---

Rating: - Brilliant!
This album bears repeated listening, and after a while it clicks and you realise just how good it is.

The Rip - song of the year

---

Rating: - Too long away...
I'm going to make this short and sweet as I don't want to waste too much time, but in the time between albums 2 and 3, it seems to me that Portishead have simply spent the years collecting every single annoying noise that they can find, and slapping it together in an effort to create "music".

Don't get me wrong, I've been a Portishead fan since the start, and regularly listen to self-titled, and PNYC, but THIS! I'm disappointed, sorely so.

---

Rating: - Only for fans
Frankly it's not hard listening, it's just plainly unlistenable! The noise and all the orchestration should be very innovative while they are in fact reminiscent of 70s industrial music and some pink floyd more sperimental stuff, only that this was 30 yrs ago, you would expect something new from a band which was at the forefront of the innovation when they first came out, not just a bad replay of Kraftwerk stuff! Furthermore, they spent years working on background noises and then forgot to write decent melodies to go along with them. Funnily enough Beth Gibson's solo record was just great and had fantastic melodies while this is pure noise with Beth moaning over it. Overall I cannot save one single song, don't trust the other reviewers, it's only for fans!

---

Rating: - Hooray - they're back
It must be 10 years since Dummy became the must have middle class album - de rigeur at dinner parties for people who didnt listen to lyrics. If you can't listen to the words on this album, listen to the tone. These songs are not to be played in a moments idle amusement. Brilliant is an accurate word if you apply the definiton of a way to cut a diamond - this is sharp, illuminating, crystalline. Icy songs in the years of warming. Need a defintion of trip-hop? This is it.