Third
Portishead's Third has been a long time coming, the result of a lengthy creative torpor following 1997's dark, distinctly underrated album Portishead. Importantly, though, they've shaken it. While the core trio of Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow, and Adrian Utley remains, this is quite a different band to Portishead's 90s incarnation: gone is the slo-mo turntable scratching and smoky jazz feel, replaced by heavy, brooding rhythms, vintage-sounding electronics, and spindly guitar. Still present, though, is that sense of emotional fracture and deep gloom. "Silence" opens with a dense drum loop which suddenly falls away to reveal Gibbons' voice, cold but magnificent: "Wounded and afraid, inside my head/Falling through changes". "Nylon Smile", meanwhile, is a fine example of Third's occasional folksy edge, an acoustic song reminiscent of Leonard Cohen that, around its midpoint, lifts off on a propulsive electronic rhythm, Gibbons holding one clear, hard note as synthesisers bubble beneath. At times, it's a harsh and foreboding listen: the electronic drums of "Machine Gun" might put off the listener hoping for smooth dinner party fare. But Third is a brave and forward-thinking return, and one great enough to justify its lengthy gestation. --Louis Pattison
Third Accessories
 In Rainbows
Narrow Stairs
Modern Guilt
Viva La Vida
Consolers Of The Lonely
The Odd Couple
Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
Fleet Foxes
Santogold
Dummy
Third Reviews
It leaves you feeling like you've learned something. If you like Portishead's previous albums you're probably gonna really like this one. Third is a journey with Portishead through some new uncharted territory. Beth Gibbon's incomparable vocals are the meat of the entree, but there are so many flavors throughout the collage of this feast.
When the music is at the forefront, however, it can be quite frustrating to listen to. Occasionally there are hints of Bjork's Homogenic (the drum track in "Plastic" would have felt at home there), except without the pop moments. Popular music thrives on melodrama, especially when it's expressed by a vocalist like Beth Gibbons. 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. But for most of its duration, Gibbons sings over just this 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.
The keyboard line in "Hunter" plays a very simple scale, up and down; the crescendo in "Small" is a one-note keyboard line. They alternate. 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. However, the music on Third is obsessively, insistently rudimentary, even for a minimalist decade like the 2000s. 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. If not for the striking, cold clarity of Gibbons' voice, there would be nothing to discuss. "Silence" begins with one (around 0:30). 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.
The end. 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. It remains to listen to Third for Gibbons' often-amazing vocals, and treat the music as an occasionally pleasant backdrop. To add variation, they produce the drum track in two ways a cold "industrial" sound and a louder, clanging pot-beating sound. 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.". 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. 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.
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. 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. 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 stylized, hyper-magnified fragility of her performances is the biggest strength of Portishead's Third. If anything, she's spookier, more mysterious now. Occasionally it is used to sort of gently guide the tone of Gibbons' vocal performance.
It's not "repetitive" in the sense that, say, Ladytron are repetitive. 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. But New Order's song had about a dozen different unforgettable hooks apart from the drum track. 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"). The minimalism of Third is anticlimactic. So does "Magic Doors." So does "We Carry On." These are not small, insignificant details; they actually form the musical core of the album.
The song, "Silence," starts off with fast-paced drums and guitara chords and some keyboard. Nice stuff. Lots of snazzy drumming. When I heard that the band was releasing a new album after 10 years of silence, I was immediately intrigued. I loved "Dummy," that first Portishead. "Hunter" is very mellow, has nice feedback guitars in it. Yes, the beats are definitely a lot harder, sort of industrial compared to the old shuffle beat of "Dummy." Challenging, indeed.
Yay, Portishead, had to pick this up the day it was released - anything to hear a bit more of Beth Gibbons' voice. For some reason the song ends very abruptly. Lovely.
Lovely feedback, very soundtrack-y. The first song starts off with some sample of a Spanish radio DJ saying something I can't understand. The first listen to the album at work I wasn't so impressed, but that could be because of the environment (no comment).
Two minutes into the song Beth's voice comes in. "We Carry On" has Moog organs, trumpets, and Sonic Youth guitar wrangling, it is one of the more "challenging" tracks on the album. It really takes me to a special place.
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.
The rest are kind of boring. I was disappointed with this album. There is something missing, it just doesn't have that rich feel to it that the previous albums had. The only song I really liked was "Machine Gun".
"The Rip" starts in with a plucking acoustic melody and eventually brings in quicker drums with an infectious electronic element. In "Hunter", they go back and forth between the chirps and a more normal, slow guitar and drum thing. "Plastic" has the most obvious trip hop sound to it, I think. 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. Third is the third (hey). 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. It's one of those things you really have to listen to with headphones. "We Carry On", as Pitchfork aptly mentioned, sounds a lot like a Clinic song, with its constant and off-putting beat.
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. The overall sound is a sort of a downbeat industrial/electronic thing with a healthy mix of normal guitar and percussion added. 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. Her voice is mournful and haunting, and fits perfectly with every track, and she sings the depressing lyrics in a very evocative, affecting way. I've been ignoring one of the most important elements though, which is the vocal work by Beth Gibbons.
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. Any remnants of hip hop scratching or whatever aren't there. "Magic Doors" manages to work a piano in there along with some horns. "Silence" has a quick drum beat and some dissonant feedback to play with the electronic sounds. "Small"'s another track that bounces back and forth between styles.
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.
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