Portishead - P3 (New Album)

[Traditional_Ale]

If disappointment could be measured, then it would be as long as a trip from Calgary, to well, Portishead. The group's name is shared with the small town they founded in back home in England. They (now) have three studio albums.

Their first album, Dummy, came out in 1994 and was an amazing combination of smoky jazz and trip-hop. While dark, singer Beth Gibbon's lyrics were at least cohesive in the sense of questioning the atrocities of humanity and a search for meaning.

1997's Portishead (self-titled) was a huge step forward, in everything from compositon, to production, performance, everything. It became much darker and more abrasive while never losing its jazz roots. Beth's lyrics and performance have a very notable shift from a "oh whatever are we going to do?" to attitude to something filled with rage, hatred, and revenge. On amazon, this album gets 4.5/5 avg based on over 150 customer replies.

Now, ten years later....

What a F-ing sell-out band. This sounds like Beth just being totally miserable, communicating nothing, and whining out of her diary into garage band. I could see that being done too, as the band members hate each other, their town hates them (I would just for this album being so bad), and now their fans are going to hate them.

This shows no imagination, depth, artistry, or the songwriting ability we know they have when their first two albums were so incredibly good, arguably genre-defining. They are more responsible than any other trip-hop act for popularizing the genre in North America.

This album is a waste of 15 bucks. Download it because its not a real effort and they don't deserve your 15 bucks, imo. This was a total cash-grab. Way to throw your name in the toilette, Portishead. I hope word gets out enough this album sucks before to many more fans are being turned into suckers.

Rating: 1/5

[troutman]

I have this record, and after a couple of listens, not one song stands out in my mind.

It is one of the highest rated records of the year at Metacritic:

http://www.metacritic.com/music/arti...rtishead/third

Maybe it will sink in after further spins, but I'm not feeling it yet. I think "electronica/trip-hop" records get inflated scores at Metacritic, because they are usually only reviewed by fans of the genre.

[Got Miikka?]

I listened to this record a few weeks ago and instantly wrote it off as self-indulgant tripe. After such a long layoff between albums you'd think time and effort would have gone into this re-introductory release. Total garbage. But is it really worth slagging off a band that's only had 2 other albums for comparison's sake? Dummy was fantastic and I personally didn't think their follow-up was its equal in any sense; should I be surprised, then, that this one falls short as well? In a way it's almost a miracle that Portishead has achieved the near-mythical status that they have. 1 great album and 2 subpar ones do not a legendary band make.

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by Got Miikka?

I listened to this record a few weeks ago and instantly wrote it off as self-indulgant tripe. After such a long layoff between albums you'd think time and effort would have gone into this re-introductory release. Total garbage. But is it really worth slagging off a band that's only had 2 other albums for comparison's sake? Dummy was fantastic and I personally didn't think their follow-up was its equal in any sense; should I be surprised, then, that this one falls short as well? In a way it's almost a miracle that Portishead has achieved the near-mythical status that they have. 1 great album and 2 subpar ones do not a legendary band make.

I really think that the self-titled second album is their magnum-opus. Dummy is great, but the second album was damn near perfection.

[fatso]

I picked it up last week and I love it. I think it's exactly what they wanted it to be... claustrophobic, cinema-noir background music. My girlfriend hates it... she just told me to turn it off as it makes her "want to kill someone". My response was, "ya, that's kind of the point, and precisely why i like it". Trip-hop has always flirted with the darkest corners of the psyche... this record humps them.

It's interesting to me that this is the cd that's getting called 'self-indulgent' when their second one is was clearly a crawl up their own backside to see if the sun really did shine it out of it. 'Dummy' to me was one of the best albums of the 90s... top-10 for sure. Their second one with all the recording, pressing to vinyl, and sampling themselves was too much for me... too clinical and intellectualized. This is much more visceral and pretty awesome imo.

[Hakan]

It's a grower.

Give it time.

[Got Miikka?]

Originally Posted by Hakan

It's a grower.

Give it time.

It may be. I'll listen to it again... I want it to be awesome, don't get me wrong.

And yeah I just didn't really dig the 2nd album as much as the first. That's me. I guess music is pretty subjective sometimes. Hence the disaparate opinions on this particular record.