Gone are the smokey jazz spy themes of 'Dummy', or the '60s orchestral sweep of the second album 'Portishead'. For their first album in eleven years Portishead returned with a sound that is altogether more industrial, mechanical and nightmarish.
Just as previous albums, THIRD has a cinematic quality and undoubtedly film composers like John Barry or Bernard Hermann are still big influences on their sound. 'Hunter' in particular bares similarities to John Barry's 'Space March'. Overall though the sound is more electronic, more broken and sparser. Its a tough listen at first and demands multiple plays before it gets inside your head. Well, it did for me anyway.
Geoff Barrow's soundscapes are more percussive than the previous two albums. They have a post-apocalyptic wasteland feel. There's no 'songs' here anymore, just the battered shells and frameworks. Were it not for Beth Gibbons vocals some tracks would be totally devoid of melody, I'm thinking of 'Nylon Smile', 'Third' or 'Machine Gun' in particular. The latter is especially intense, the drum effects sounding like a mixture of a workman's pneumatic drill and a lunatic battering a steel drum down a very deep well. I must point out I've never actually heard what that sounds like, but I'm pretty sure it would be a bit like this. The first time you hear 'Machine Gun' you'll think your ears are going to bleed, but it is strangely hypnotic and enjoyable in a masochistic sort of way.
Beth Gibbon's stays true to form as the tormented chanteuse. You have to assume is suffering from some pretty harrowing psychosis. Whilst I'm sure if you met her she'd be a delightfully chipper individual the noise that emanates from her on record is pure misery. It works perfectly against this industrial backdrop.
It's a great album and certainly up there with the other two. It might not have been as commercially successful but it trumps them both for originality. The smokey jazz "trip hop" sound they helped typify with Dummy has been much copied since. I can't imagine an album as original and obtuse as THIRD being released by anyone anytime soon.
THIRD also contains for me Portishead's finest track, 'The Rip'. A stunning mix of guitar, synth and the theremin that's was such a part of their sound a decade earlier. It has been covered live brilliantly by Radiohead. Which has just made me think, can you imagine a wail-off between Beth Gibbons and Thom Yorke... Sheesh!
An epic album of electronic misery. Happy days.
'THE RIP'
'HUNTER'
'MACHINE GUN'
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