Let's do this
― van smack, Saturday, 17 May 2008 02:07 (5 years ago) Permalink
I'm going with "The Rip"
― van smack, Saturday, 17 May 2008 02:09 (5 years ago) Permalink
I guess this is a good time to share a video I made for one of my classes a couple weeks ago...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm5mXG7MAs8
― Bus Driver Stu, Saturday, 17 May 2008 02:20 (5 years ago) Permalink
"the rip" even though i love every song on this album
― Professor Respect, Saturday, 17 May 2008 15:35 (5 years ago) Permalink
We Carry On.
― chap, Saturday, 17 May 2008 15:37 (5 years ago) Permalink
I think my other favorites (The Rip, We Carry On, Machine Gun) will get enough votes, so I'm going with "Magic Doors" -- easily the most underrated song here.
― stephen, Saturday, 17 May 2008 16:56 (5 years ago) Permalink
The one with the 'wuppa wuppa' and 'shk shk' sounds
seriously, though, "The Rip." The whole album is great though
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Saturday, 17 May 2008 18:01 (5 years ago) Permalink
Nevermind, I'm actually gonna go with "Threads" - Portishead goes stoner rock and Beth Gibbons on guitar!
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Saturday, 17 May 2008 18:02 (5 years ago) Permalink
popular choice, but yeah, "We Carry On"
― Mackro Mackro, Saturday, 17 May 2008 18:09 (5 years ago) Permalink
My favorite song changes just about each time I listen to it, but for now it's "Silence".
― Johnny Fever, Saturday, 17 May 2008 19:39 (5 years ago) Permalink
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― ILX System, Thursday, 22 May 2008 23:01 (5 years ago) Permalink
The Rip is the only track i love.
― jed_, Thursday, 22 May 2008 23:36 (5 years ago) Permalink
I like this album a lot, but I haven't really learned to separate the songs on it.
― The Reverend, Thursday, 22 May 2008 23:44 (5 years ago) Permalink
I still don't know what half of'em are called!
"Machine Gun" was my gateway, so my favorite song it will remain.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 22 May 2008 23:47 (5 years ago) Permalink
Voted "Machine Gun", but "Silence", "We Carry On", "The Rip" all seem like good choices.
― Alex in SF, Thursday, 22 May 2008 23:48 (5 years ago) Permalink
i think The Rip is the only one where they seemed to achieve what they wanted, the rest seems either half arsed or predictable to me. a track like Nylon Smile seems particularly tossed off - the ending that's presumably supposed to sound devastating but just sounds anaemic. even The Rip doesn't achieve its potential; that way too premature fade out. We Carry On is great but it's so predictably miserable that part of me just want to laugh.
― jed_, Friday, 23 May 2008 00:04 (5 years ago) Permalink
actually, fuck that, Machine Gun is immense.
― jed_, Friday, 23 May 2008 00:17 (5 years ago) Permalink
Dude jed, I think you listen to "Small", "Magic Doors" and "Threads" again.
― HI DERE, Friday, 23 May 2008 02:37 (5 years ago) Permalink
well 'Hunter' will get ignored here but it's so dreamy I'm votin it
― blueski, Friday, 23 May 2008 11:15 (5 years ago) Permalink
Machine Gun gives the chills.
― call all destroyer, Friday, 23 May 2008 17:38 (5 years ago) Permalink
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― ILX System, Friday, 23 May 2008 23:01 (5 years ago) Permalink
Damn, still stuck between "Silence", "The Rip", and "Machine Gun".
― The Reverend, Friday, 23 May 2008 23:45 (5 years ago) Permalink
i would have voted for The Rip had i seen this poll.
― rockapads, Saturday, 24 May 2008 03:06 (5 years ago) Permalink
I would have voted for any of them had I heard the album before today.
― Rob M v2, Saturday, 24 May 2008 10:33 (5 years ago) Permalink
it's taken me a long time to get round to hearing this. it's fucking immense. but still: "machine gun" would have got my vote all the same.
― grimly fiendish, Saturday, 24 May 2008 14:21 (5 years ago) Permalink
aw I should have voted for "Small"
― HI DERE, Saturday, 24 May 2008 17:12 (5 years ago) Permalink
the rip is still so amazing
this whole album rules
― Bleeqwot the Chef (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 20:10 (2 years ago) Permalink
yes it does
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 20:12 (2 years ago) Permalink
like sometimes "album of the year" buzz albums seem kind a diminished after the excitement wears off and stuff but i think this sounds even better now
― Bleeqwot the Chef (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:22 (2 years ago) Permalink
The entire sequence from "We Carry On" until the end is so unimpeachably great that it obscures how great the front half of the album is (for me, anyway).
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:24 (2 years ago) Permalink
yeah the whole thing flows so great...magic doors is gorgeous
― Bleeqwot the Chef (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:25 (2 years ago) Permalink
YES I was saying that for weeks and I feel like people were so in love with "The Rip" and then so worn out by "We Carry On", "Machine Gun" and "Small" that "Magic Doors" didn't get the love it deserved, but in many ways I think it's the song that ties that whole second half together.
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:27 (2 years ago) Permalink
OK fine -- I'll play this again tonight.
― Hey Look More Than Five Years Has Passed And You Have A C (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:28 (2 years ago) Permalink
No pressure.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:28 (2 years ago) Permalink
xpost -- As well you should. So should I.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:28 (2 years ago) Permalink
It is actually kind of fascinating how qualitatively different the sound palette on this album is from Dummy and Portishead, yet listening to the three albums in succession really gives you a strong sense of the natural progression these albums go through.
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:31 (2 years ago) Permalink
(by which I mean, a lot of the shock tied to the experience of listening to this album is lessened if you go back to "Cowboys" or "Humming")
(not that anything they've done really sounds like "Machine Gun")
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:35 (2 years ago) Permalink
Definitely agree that this is an album that has got even better over time. It's the album I still listen to the most from 2008 and easily my favourite album of the theirs.
― Kitchen Person, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:35 (2 years ago) Permalink
btw can I just
I would like to have this band follow me around and be my theme music
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:39 (2 years ago) Permalink
yes this album is pretty fantastic
― sonderangerbot, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:40 (2 years ago) Permalink
yeah i was so wrong about this record, it's fantastic. although i was correct that the rip should go on for another 3 minutes at least.
― jed_, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:45 (2 years ago) Permalink
I have come to adore the little mood oasis that is "Deep Water"
also I think I've played "Small" more than any other song on this album, largely because I'm still trying to figure out that incredibly dissonant harmony part
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:47 (2 years ago) Permalink
also I'd forgotten about this:
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:49 (2 years ago) Permalink
My attachment to this album is purely for its formal qualities; Portishead's ethos leaves me cold. It's the most assured realization of that ethos to date.
I was reminded last night when I played Marsha Ambrosius' version of "Sour Times" how much the older material just sounds bleh.
― Hey Look More Than Five Years Has Passed And You Have A C (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:51 (2 years ago) Permalink
YOU TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:53 (2 years ago) Permalink
I WILL TOTALLY VIRTUALFIGHT YOU OVER THIS BAND
also this version isn't very good, the song doesn't really work on a more assured voice
I mean, the day I find this to be bleh is the day that I die:
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:57 (2 years ago) Permalink
wait that was a weird edit, I should have listened before I posted
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:59 (2 years ago) Permalink
I love this album, didn't really appreciate it completely when it was released.
Deep Water btw is a ripoff (actually a hommage since they admit it) of Tonight You Belong to Me (made famous by Steve Martin in The Jerk)
― Moka, Thursday, 7 April 2011 09:34 (2 years ago) Permalink
Tricky covered the "If you lika me" song from Man With Two Brains. Bristolian trip hoppers love Steve Martin.
― Pop is superior to all other genres (DL), Thursday, 7 April 2011 09:45 (2 years ago) Permalink
This album totally holds up, and I kinda had that feeling from the day that I bought it. God, I remember somewhere on ilm someone slagging this because it ripped off Silver Apples or The United States of America or some similarly obscure band, all "yawn, this is nothing that hasn't done before". Fuck that post, imo.
― the best reggae summer club there used to be in Helsinki (kkvgz), Thursday, 7 April 2011 13:23 (2 years ago) Permalink
OTM! I've been pulling it out a lot too.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Thursday, 7 April 2011 13:28 (2 years ago) Permalink
There should be a thread somewhere for talking about BEAK> even though that album came out like 18 months ago, but whatever.. It's been in my rotation for a while and hasn't left yet, and I'm pretty sure I like it better than "Third."
― billstevejim, Thursday, 30 June 2011 14:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
It's good, but I'm not sure about "better than Third"
― Neil S, Thursday, 30 June 2011 14:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yeah I'm not expecting anyone to agree, but I listen to it way more often than Third.
― billstevejim, Thursday, 30 June 2011 15:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
how does it compare to the Anika album?
― can't be gloomy with halloumi (dog latin), Thursday, 30 June 2011 15:23 (1 year ago) Permalink
these days I would vote "Small" without any regret; it's the song I've played the most off the album
― Victory Chainsaw! (DJP), Friday, 8 June 2012 19:45 (11 months ago) Permalink
I didn't expect this to be my favorite album of the past 15 years
― Lil Swayne of Pie (DJP), Tuesday, 21 August 2012 14:30 (9 months ago) Permalink
If anything I think more recent history has made it sound even MORE appropriately unsettled and fucked up.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 21 August 2012 14:32 (9 months ago) Permalink
I listened to it again after placing it in my PFM ballot and the vocals still annoy me but holy fuck on the guitars, sound effects, and well wrought doom.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 August 2012 14:34 (9 months ago) Permalink
the vocals still annoy me
Out.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 21 August 2012 14:35 (9 months ago) Permalink
I mean, you are, but.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 21 August 2012 14:36 (9 months ago) Permalink
aiming "Machine Gun" effects at you
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 August 2012 14:38 (9 months ago) Permalink
I can't imagine the vocals being done any other way. The way Beth switches from fragile to cute to strained desperation to fury, all within a piano to mezzo-piano dynamic range, is breathtaking to me as a singer; the fact that she finds so many different shades, colors and emotions in her voice without ever really getting loud is mad impressive.
― Lil Swayne of Pie (DJP), Tuesday, 21 August 2012 14:40 (9 months ago) Permalink
you know far more about range than I do, and I don't disagree with that. It's me: I have less patience for croakings of despair these days.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 August 2012 14:44 (9 months ago) Permalink
YOU ARE SO NOT GOTH wait you never were one never mind
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 21 August 2012 14:49 (9 months ago) Permalink
I love this album, Beth is a champ. Prefer the Beak> record.
― nedless summer (Ówen P.), Tuesday, 21 August 2012 15:30 (9 months ago) Permalink