portishead - third

[sloth]

yeah old news tell me about it

but for anyone who hasnt got it yet portishead's new album leaked, i dont know, like months ago.

ive just got round to listening to it though, and its got some pretty neat songs! plastic and nylon smile is like listening to dummy all over again, but tracks like the rip are awesome in a whole new way. a lot of it is weird - we carry on reminds me of add n to (x), really abrasive. deep water is this deep south ditty.

i cant figure out how they wrote this album. which i guess is what it makes it so good. the rip is by far the strongest track, though. even if you cant be fucked to download the whole thing, get this. hear it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPDMLq4TtrI

[Rez]

i love how awkward this album is. in addition to loving most of the songs.

[sloth]

yeah i really dont get how everyone isnt whipping themselves into a spaz over this record. i guess all the dinner-party couples who bought dummy are too busy playing beethoven into their distended pregnant bellies now to bother about it.

i know what you mean about it being awkward, though. but yeah, its kind of charming knowing that they fucking LABOURED over this for a decade to make sure it was EXACTLY like that.

[liquidstatik]

I didn't even know they had a new album coming out, so thanks for sharing :O

What I've heard of it sounds great, I need to find it to download ;<

[Rez]

so good i ordered the box set

AND IT ARRIVED TODAY. IT'S GORGEOUS.

[sloth]

this one right? looks amazing.

i read somewhere about beth and geoff barrow's shared interest in Earth, Sunn and all the Southern Lord-y drone stuff, which kind of adds a new spin on things.

[Mockery]

Originally Posted by sloth

yeah i really dont get how everyone isnt whipping themselves into a spaz over this record.

I was really excited about it, because their second album is still one of my all-time favorites. This, however, this was NOT worth the 10+ year wait or however long it's been. I've heard the entire thing, and aside from maybe 2-3 songs, it comes off like a bad art school project. Can't say I'm a fan... but yeah, that box set packaging does look really nice at least.

[Rez]

beth gibbons as a "bad art school project"

you make me sad, rog.

[Cedar]

i thought it was good.

[Mockery]

Originally Posted by Rez

beth gibbons as a "bad art school project"

you make me sad, rog.

Her voice is still great and fully capable of doing what they've done in the past, but musically, this album just doesn't cut it for me. I can appreciate them not trying to repeat the same style that they've done in the past, trying out new things 'n what not, but I don't like this new direction they've gone in and hope to hell they have a lot more stuff written after so many years of silence.

[Rez]

fair enough.
if it's abrasive and odd it's obviously not going to get everyone behind its boat.
i dont think they have more material than this. they went a looong looong while of not writing anything because they were dry, seperately going under nervous breakdowns and divorces, and feeling pretty flat overall until they wrote "we carry on"
then things got going again.
but the machine gun single didnt even have a b-side...

apparently barrow and gibbons found common ground in Earth and SunnO))) just like they did in hip hop back in 94.

[ScruU2wice]

Originally Posted by sloth

ive just got round to listening to it though, and its got some pretty neat songs! plastic and nylon smile is like listening to dummy all over again,

bump

I have to respectfully disagree, nothing in this album reminds me of dummy. Dummy was/is the definition of trip hop, or at least as close of a personification of it that can be made. Third is trying to get as far away from it as they can skip across a lake.

I think it's nice that they are doing what they want, but I haven't found a moment that I've been in the mood to listen this album again. That seems to be a problem in my appreciation, but this isn't an album you put on in the car on a drive to work or put on your ipod while running. It requires and demands the attention that I don't have the time to put into it right now.

that being said I'm ready to turn out the lights on the next person who rants about the ukulele track being lifted from a Steve Martin movie. Like it was some well thought interlude between heavy gritty songs.

[Rez]

deep water seems pretty demented to me. people take it as this optimistic little island, but i heard it as being willfully naive at the start of something good before it inevitably descends into the same kind of failure and doubt and hurt that define the rest of their songs. except now she knows it.

[Blasted Child]

The album got bad reviews over here, although I loved Dummy so much I might buy it either way.

[Rez]

"over here?"

where would that be, blender magazine?

[ScruU2wice]

I feel like too many articles I read revolve around "the band that made dummy and then didn't do anything for 11 years", making an album. Kinda like if JD salinger published something. 85% rating for this album is nuts, because it isn't an album everyone will like. I like some bad reviews to add authenticity to the criticism.

[sloth]

Originally Posted by ScruU2wice

I have to respectfully disagree, nothing in this album reminds me of dummy. Dummy was/is the definition of trip hop, or at least as close of a personification of it that can be made. Third is trying to get as far away from it as they can skip across a lake.

yeah maybe that was a bit too enthusiastic. but still, i wouldnt say they trying to get as far away as possible from their old stuff. i cant listen to those tracks without thinking of dummy, but perhaps thats just me.

and as for reviews revolving around their huge hiatus, dont you think its at least kind of relevant? i mean, if JD salinger emerged the shadows to put out a hanging with mr cooper fanfic, or something so totally at odds with the style he was renowned for, thoughts are naturally gonna turn to what happened in those intervening years. it was always gonna be an issue, but given what a weird record this is, isnt it even more salient?

that said, i can where everyones coming from. this far on, i havent gone back to it as much as id have expected to. perhaps because it is such a challenging record, but im pretty sure its a failing on my part more than theirs.