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| | Third | | | Music Artist : | | Portishead | | Music Style : | | General | | Record Label : | | Mercury | | Release Date : | | 2008-04-29 | | Store Price : | | $13.98 | | Artistopia's Price: $12.99 | | Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Silence
2. Hunter
3. Nylon Smile
4. The Rip
5. Plastic
6. We Carry On
7. Deep Water
8. Machine Gun
9. Small
10. Magic Doors
11. Threads
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Other Artist Albums
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 You're right, it's not trip-hop, it's just excellent music
Submitted on: 2009-11-23 |
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Portishead would like to apologize to their fans for not producing "Dummy 2" or "Portishead 3". Upon reading the 1-star reviews of the angry fans, they have realized their mistake and went back to the studio to record a new album with the same stuff they were doing 10 years ago... Wait, what?! Are you kidding me? If you want something that sounds like their previous albums there is a very simple solution: listen to the previous albums! Musicians evolve and try to create music that they feel is meaningful. Sometimes experimentation works, other times it does not. But for Portishead it has sure done wonders.
I love their first two albums just as much as anyone else. That does not mean though that I have a "Dummy" ruler with which I check if the new album fits the standards. It doesn't, and that's wonderful. The trip-hop is still there, the melancholy is plenty, but the band has also added new stuff to the mix: some alternative atmosphere (no wonder Radiohead did a cover of "The Rip"), some psychedelic undertones (the second half of "Small", reminiscent of early Pink Floyd), some powerful electronic beats (the mighty "Machine Gun", or the menacing "We Carry On"). They're changing dynamics inside the songs and on the album as a whole (just think of the odd pairing of the soothing "Deep Water" and the disturbing "Machine Gun") while at the same time providing a wonderful counterbalance with Beth's eerie voice.
There is a very smooth transition from the first to the last tracks. The first half of the album is a powerful reminder of why we love Portishead in the first place. The second half is a sign of things to come, and why some of us will still love Portishead even if they might sound nothing like in the beginning. Give it some time, come back to it later. It might just not be your album, but there's also a chance that it will start growing on you and then the reward will be tremendous. One morning you'll wake up hooked to the beat of Machine Gun and that will pretty much be it. |
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Review from Melt Magazine - Columbus, OH
Submitted on: 2009-11-17 |
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Anyone who first sampled Portishead's equally sulky and scintillating, espionage influenced trip-hop after 1998 surely had a dream or two crushed under the weight of the trio's ten year hiatus from touring and releasing new material. Roseland NYC Live, authenticated the bands short but sweet legacy with one of the most prolific, profound and exceedingly produced live performances ever birthed by the human condition. With Third we find beloved singer Beth Gibbons ditching the hooky choruses that made the first two albums, in favor of a dynamically diminishing delivery that drops the demeanor of the new tracks to a chilling degree of alienation compared to the cool, easier-to-relate-to gloom of earlier work. The in-house production from Geoff Barrow is equally unhinged offering only a few glimpses of the old formula through a veil of experimental song structure. The sounds themselves bring to mind an image of the trio carrying a laptop into the musky music room of an old English estate that was abandoned in the 1930's and setting up studio amongst rickey organs and warped, rusty and otherwise ruined instruments. An insolent aspect of Portishead's unnerving new personality comes across in the albums first single "Machine Gun", a track that is two minutes of song followed by two minutes of repetitive, ring modulated drum samples. Those fans expecting a return to form or a jovial resurrection are met by an album that makes an infallible case against the old saying "time heals all wounds". Third sounds like ten years worth of suffering in all the right ways. - Tyler Starkey
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A long overdue album from Portishead
Submitted on: 2009-11-02 |
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The trio of Geoff Barrow, Adrian Utley, and Beth Gibbons- known to the public as Portishead- are back with a new album, "Third". It is their first album in a long while. How long, you ask? Well, the last time they released an album, Bill Clinton was just starting his second term in office as the President of the United States...yes, that long. This album is noticeably different sonically. They rid themselves of the drum machines and the samplers that defined their signature sound and went with live instrumentation, which made them sound more darker and more menacing than they already are. Beth's voice is haunting on "Nylon Smile" and "The Rip". She's backed by a choir on the too-brief "Deep Water". Overall, this album is fantastic...and slightly creepy. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if any song from this album was used in a horror film, considering the overall tone.
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 Portishead 3rd, an awesome listen, not perfect
Submitted on: 2009-10-05 |
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I am surprised how good this is, for me it is very listenable contrary to some of the other reviewers out there. I would say that is close to brilliant the majority of the time with a few moments of real brilliance here and there. I could have used a little more variety on some of the tracks. But, for the most part it is a truly interesting and entertaining album. Really it's not perfect, but nothing is.
All in all, I prefer the earlier Portishead. |
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 Third
Submitted on: 2009-09-05 |
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| Third being Portishead 3rd studio album and their 2008 album was an album that I had been waiting to listen to for a long time and when I did I was very disappointed. Most of the tracks sound like demo versions or tracks that were discarded on earlier albums. The sound is muffled and the lyrics make no sense at all. The booklet is very sparse with no lyrics and no listing of whom played what. Many critics liked this album, however, I must admit that this was a major letdown. 2/5. |
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