Third

---

---

Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Portishead's Third has been a long time coming, the result of a lengthy creative topor 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

---

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-06-29 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.

---

review by: date: 2008-06-27 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!

---

review by: brianel1056 date: 2008-06-26 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.

---

review by: a Psychedelic Terrorist date: 2008-06-09 rating:
A-Z or what Portishead have been listening to for 10 years
I will not waste time saying what has already been said. Buy this, buy it now. It is Portishead, it is dark, but there is something about the panic and emotion of it that which drives you forward, there are touches of 'Silver Apples', episodes of 'Radiohead', 'Music Emporium' or 'United States of America' even '24 track Loop' by 'This Heat'. Forget 'Deep Water' that is just to ground the sense of loss. What I really want to say is that Beth Gibbons sounds like the mother of an angel missing her angel daughter who has gone inter railing and she hasn't heard from her and wishes she would come back or contact her. The separation from mother and child is evocative of the hope and longing that lies in idealism that has been shattered by failure or let down. Humanity is about realisation, realisation that sometimes people let you down and you have to look to and rely on yourself in this you can find strength and optimism, as there is time for reflection as we are all flawed.
So it's not Dummy, but we have moved so far. We know they haven't produced much in their career, but you know that every single sound on this album right down to the mix and processing has been devised with the ultimate precision to sound exactly the way it sounds and anyone who saw them live would totally respond to this. This will be one of the great records of 2008. On the third listen you will get it, buy it now. Let it bring you to it.


review by: date: 2008-06-02 rating:
Worth the effort it takes to listen to
All the time away seems to have distilled Portishead's music into something true to the original and yet even more powerful than before. I am not sad that the scratching and sampling has gone - it worked on the other two albums, but to do it again after such a long break would have made it seem like an effort to recapture their glory days. They had to evolve, and they have, and the result is uncompromising and even in places uncomfortable to listen to...

...and yet that is what makes it great. Portishead don't seem to care if you like their music the first time - what they care about is that you come back to it a second time and "get it". Yes, it is as far from easy listening as trip-hop (if anyone still calls it that in 2008) can be, but just as Shakespeare is not easy on the eye yet is worth the effort (or so people tell you), Third is not easy on the ear and yet it will draw you in for repeated listenings.

---

Similar products

The Age Of The Understatement [Digipack]
Portishead
The Seldom Seen Kid
Seventh Tree
Sunday at Devil Dirt

---

Similar categories

Music . Styles . Dance & Electronic . Bestsellers
Music . Styles . Dance & Electronic . Electronica
Music . Styles . Indie . Bestsellers
Music . Styles . Hip-Hop & Rap
Music . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . CD . CD Album

---