Third

I was really excited when I heard that Portishead had released a new album.
The whole thing sounds like a half baked effort. I listened to it one time and then tossed it in the trash.
Yuch

I cannot say that i'm a fan of Discordinant sound.
Many a musical snob calls this intelligent music.
I call it noise.
It doesn't take rocket science to create garbles of mathematical
sound. Just an analytical mind, & a want to stray far from center.

This release is very disappointing in my estimate.
Not in the fact that it is indeed so unlike old Portishead, but that it lacks in any firm tonal center for much of the duration.
As soon as you begin to want to connect to something, it is quickly ripped from underneath you.

There have been many geniuses that have pushed the bar far from the norm
but have maintained a central tonality in their work.
This is in my estimate where genius lies. You can play with time signatures,
tempo's, progressions, etc; Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, King Crimson, Prokofiev, Gorecki,
indian raga's & so on & manage to push the envelope.
But no center, then there's emptiness.
Like building a summer cottage without a foundation & expecting that a summer home can be a permanent home.
It falls apart.
It's fun for the immediate moment, but you quickly lose interest.

There are elements of mind & ear candy on this recording for certain.
However for me it is very temporary. Then i have no want to listen again for a good while.
Stereolab has done similar, but much warmer work over the past 7-8 years.
This cd isn't so much groundbreaking to me, as it is trendy.
For a generation of listeners who really have stopped listening with the decline of the trip-hop era,
or have been forever trapped therein it sounds like a revelation.
The name Portishead carries the weight.
Much like several other bands that had legendary cult followings during their respective era's,
only to take a long hiatus & then re-appear with an updated sound.
People were waiting & waiting, with the want for something to embrace.

Sounds like:
Elements of cold electronic like the algorithmic Autechre,
minus some of their rhythmic structure,
added elements of the coldest of Bjork's post Nelee Hooper vocal arrangements,
Lo-fi analog synth, via Stereolab,
but run through filters to once again create a very cold,
& detached feel.
Elements of the signature Portishead scattered to & fro.

Like so many belated follow ups, the pioneering "trip hop" act's self-explanatory release feels partially out of touch, but perhaps that has benefits when the experimentation commences in earnest. The entire process can shift from sounding effortlessly fresh to hopelessly contrived a little too jarringly.

I have been a Portishead fan from the start and at first I was a little uneasy with the heavyness of the music on this Third disc. Now that I have listened to it over 200 times, I must say it is my #1 pick of 2008. Portishead continues to evolve and this is the future. They are the top of the "trip hop" food chain and as for the other reviews that dogged this "don't you evah," and you wouldn't know good music if it beat you toa pulp. This is a work of Art and deserves the highest of recognition. Buy it, listen to it and then listen again. If it doesn't blow your mind then save it for your future mind. It is way ahead of it's time.

What a comeback! Those who were expecting the same thing and are disappointed should be ashamed. This band took a ten year layoff and have come back with an extraordinary effort, advancing their sound beyond what anyone could expect.

Great effort.