The thread for Portishead "Third"

Replace Gibbons with Tracy Thorn and you got a deal.

finally bought this today.

the vinyl looks a little flimsy : ( and possibly warped on one of the discs but no too bad....some major label vinyl they are pressing these days is kinda wack qualitywise.

but anyway got the free download thing and the album is great.

maybe not as "crazy" as this thread has led me to believe but plenty cool, real buzzy in parts...seems like a sorta natural extension of that rustin man thing w/adding more krautrockish type stuff....

almost reminds me of "broken english" a little bit in a way (not that it really sounds like broken english, it just reminds me of broken english in in feel)

"Machine Gun" reminds me a lot of Green Velvet's "Flash"...I also love how the opening track just sprints out of the gate, like they're daring their imitators to try to keep up with them this time...

I like the first half of this album a lot but it really shifts into another gear once it hits "We Carry On"; the last three songs in particular are an ever-increasing feedback loop of awesome.

"Small" suggets a jam session between Low and Iron Butterfly

or maybe more Deep Purple

"We Carry On" suggests a jam session between Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 and Silver Apples (who in turn suggested a jam session between Suicide and Love)...

"forecast", rather then "suggested", as Silver Apples predated Suicide...

i feel like with all that awesome instrumentation, there could have been some more interesting vocals.

For me, this is the only real flaw with this album. Her voice is simply too gentle for the music in several spots, in that those songs would come off better with a more confrontational, aggressive style of singing (i.e. "Threads").

"We Carry On" suggests a jam session between Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 and Silver Apples (who in turn suggested a jam session between Suicide and Love)...

Hmmm. Is that why it's my favorite track right now?

I don't find the record "difficult" in the slightest, save for the fact that I need to be in a fairly specific head place to really enjoy it. But when I'm thinking to myself, "I don't feel quite unsettled and nervous enough," it's perfect.

OK, this record. This thread. The number of complacent, joy-starved dullards ALREADY declaring it not only "Album of the Year" but of the fucking Decade. It's 2008's Big Overhype Behemoth. Unlike, say, "Sound Of Silver", there's a lot I appreciate here; it's a good record, and the last four tracks are all pretty magnificent. But as an album, I find it to be largely one-paced, unexciting, and nothing I'll really return to in future: in short everything Scott Seward said. I mean such a "great" song as Silence takes its admittedly addictive riff and just rides it for five minutes, with only the most half-hearted of cosmetic changes creating an illusion of involvement. When people are reduced to revelling in the most cursory of "synth wobbles" as if sifting through the Bible trying to find a code, I wonder whether they're mythologising their own response, transferring their own faith in the album's impeachability onto their hearing of it. Machine Gun was a great way for the album to introduce itself, but it's a clear highlight. Much of the rest is mundane, unadventurous mood music. Let go, people. I really hope this doesn't top the year-end polls. I know it will. Shame.

*unimpeachability. Sorry, I'm drunk.

I couldn't tell.

While I don't quite agree with Louis' passionate dismissal of Third, I can see his point - texturally, sensually, aesthetically and emotionally this record is fantastic, but there's not much in terms of... things to remember, except vague sensations and impressions. It IS very one-paced, one-idea. But that's OK because it's not about 'songs' or 'hooks' or whatever; you're not meant to sing along. I like it a lot, but I also don't think it's AOTY material.

i think a huge part of its appeal is that its a real 'album' ie an actual however-many-minute listening experience

im a singles guy but this kind of stuff is a real breath of fresh air & i dont really get criticizing it for being different

xp: Agreed. It is "mood music", as Louis notes, but where's he's wrong is the idea that there's something inherently wrong with that.

Thing is, good as it often sounds, very few of the tracks seem to take many risks or exit their comfort-zones, with the result that much as I enjoyed listening the first few times, any sense of wonder has sharply dissipated. The few songs that DO attempt something interesting are all backloaded.

My own aesthetic standpoint can probably be summarised in my attitude to "Deep Water". Many people have described it as Portishead's most radical stylistic departure yet. I think it's by far the most boring, unoriginal piece of music they've ever done, indicative of an attitude that prioritises mood ahead of magic. Choose your poison.

I mean, there are some great textural instances here. "We Carry On" has a really cool drum-sound and digital-keyboard-noise at the start, although it doesn't DO much with it except throw in some guitar mush later on. "Machine Gun" is a genuinely brilliant song, with real elements of surprise (and mood alteration, something I prefer to mood), "Small" ditto (keeps coming back for more!). "Threads" has an awesome coda with subtle noises creeping up alongside the air-raid guitar. BUT I think most of these are ultimately wasted in the context of the album, which as a whole I find to be dull. Even a song like "The Rip" which sounded superb at first go has revealed itself to be thoroughly limited on repeat auditions.

In the context of Portishead's career, I like Third even less. There's nothing on here even close to being as daring, thrilling or moving as "Cowboys" or "Half Day Closing" and I'm not gonna start on a Dummy comparison. Still, it's solid 6 or 7 out of 10 material in my book; the reason I'm criticising it at length is, as ever, due to the weight of unfair praise I think it's received.

the reason I'm criticising it at length is, as ever, due to the weight of unfair praise I think it's received.

It's only the beginning of June now and there are already at least 200 other records more worthy of your negativity. Channel it! ;)

I love mood music, but this album seems relentlessly grim to me.

Yeah, this has been a bad year so far, at least for mainstream/indie/high-profile releases. I don't want to be gratuitously negative about a record I don't ACTUALLY mind, but I do feel a need to challenge an almost unopposed current of (I think overstatedly) positive opinion. I apologise if I've seemed a bit brash in my opposition.

Dan, relentlessly grim can work, even in the context of a consistent mood. I think Xasthur's last two albums are works of wonder. But the reason I dig Xasthur and not this so much is the obliqueness and otherness of his sounds. Portishead, for the most part, are operating with comparatively very ordinary sounds. Xasthur creates a tableau that is both beautiful and horrifying, almost a mystic ritual of not-quite-heard mediations with a genuinely original ethic.

I can see his point - texturally, sensually, aesthetically and emotionally this record is fantastic, but there's not much in terms of... things to remember, except vague sensations and impressions. It IS very one-paced, one-idea.

Right. Loving this record comes down to how you feel about Beth Gibbons, and since I find her voice and lyrics parched the album remains a

(before anyone brings up the who-cares-about-lyrics argument, I should point out that it's a singer's job to make us care about concepts and such)

i like this album a lot, but i'll admit that beth's lyrics are sometimes so bleak as to come across as a caricature of what "bleak" should be. it's just relentless.

*and since I find her voice and lyrics parched the album remains half satisfying.

I'm very happy I don't feel that way because I love the sensations this album gives me. I'd agree that the first half is weak in comparison to the second, particularly the massive run from "Machine Gun" onwards, but "Nylon Smile", "The Rip" and "We Carry On" are also massively satisfying songs.

Louis, your dismissal of the drums in "We Carry On" indicates to me that you're fixating on one piece of the overall puzzle and expecting it to dominate the entire song when so much of this album is about blending and balancing the score into a cohesive unit; we've been trained by decades of thumping that anything with any passing association with "dance", particularly when the BPMs start to increase. While I agree that type of massive rush is primal and satisfying and one of the greatest things in the world, I don't think that's what they were trying to do with this album; the whole thing is paced/arranged like a baroque fugue in that each piece is intended to have its own place of prominence while contributing to the overarching theme/mood and weaving into a cohesive structure greater than the sum of its parts. Let remixers pull club bangers out of these tracks ("We Carry On", "Machine Gun" and "The Rip" could all fit the bill); that's not what this album is going for, even less so than their previous albums, and I'm not going to fault them for going there when it was exactly what I wanted to hear.

I dunno dude, I just thought this album missed opportunities (and also that apart from how "We Carry On" and "Silence" sounded the first 2/3 was yawnsome). Restraint and subtle fluctuation is good but until the last four tracks I don't think they found a groove awesome enough to carry this restraint. It's one of the most astonishingly back-loaded albums I've heard in a while. Maybe it'll take a few more listens.

Their choice of a fucking mundane, utterly rote blues cycle as their moment of stylistic departure is what rankles most tbh. It sends out very bad signals. And as for that "amazing segue", well Machine Gun's intro would sound good after more or less anything.

last four tracks would have made for a fucking excellent, coherence-without-monotony EP, MAYBE if Silence and We Carry On had been incorporated along with a more sophisticated (and twice-as-long) take on "The Rip" we could have had a masterful little 40-minute album

when you're drunk making "The Rip" nine climactic minutes long sounds like the greatest idea ever, although we're back to Dan's "dance remix" point.

oh shit it's june gotta watch my postcount now, honeymoon is over

Machine Gun is boring. The rest of the album is ace.

i am totally baffled about the "machine gun" love as well. one of the weakest and most uninspired songs on the album. which i like a lot over-all. it's not as thrilling as their first one though. "dummy" came like a lightning out of the blue sky. the new one is more like the thunder coming more than ten years after.

Aye; I like Machine Gun, especially the end section, but I'm kind of baffled by quite how much adulation it's getting here.

If it didn't have the bit near the end where the harsh electronic beat suddenly modulates and changes key, then I probably wouldn't like it THAT much either. I'd say something like "it has a wicked beat but doesn't DO anything with it". But it DOES do something with it. Hurrah.

I really, really, really, REALLY love the melody, particularly the chorus. I also like how the song is decompressed. The disparate parts are scattered throughout the song and never fully come together; even at the end when the synths come in, the vocal line from the chorus is still missing.

Good way of putting it -- on our way up and back from the Cure on Saturday Third was on repeat and it was hitting me just how weirdly fractured "Machine Gun" is, how the various changes in the drums still caught me a bit off guard each time.

And the album is of course still grand.

The melody is rly good, yeah, and the little bass pulse that comes at the end of every 4 bars is awesome too, rly propels the song. I won't mind if Machine Gun tops the year-end singles/songs poll. I just think the album doesn't have enough variation or excitement, especially in the first half. Subjective I know but it's where I stand.

Yeah I'm not so sold on the first half, still - I find myself listening to Silence, skipping to The Rip and then straight through to We Carry On.

I'm no good at dissecting songs/albums so don't have a lot to say on the subject although, having seen them on Thursday at Primavera I would add that the new stuff has way more impact live than it does on record. Not that I don't like it just that it felt far less different to Dummy/Portishead than I thought it would.

I agree that the first half is weak compared to the second half; I almost always skip "Hunter" and "Plastic". (Granted, that's more because they're followed by "Nylon Smile" and "We Carry On" rather than because I have a problem with those songs in and of themselves, but I always listen to the stretch from "Machine Gun" on without interruption.)

I really, really, really like "Nylon Smile" a lot.

FYI:

I posted this on the vinyl thread, but in case some peeps don't go there....they have sent out new version of the vinyl that's not warped (pretty much all the original run was terribly warped due to them shrink wrapping the album before the vinyl had cooled properly)...sounds like it was an industry wide error, and if you bought at a good shop they should take your old copy and replace for free (as the store I went to did)....

Hmm, that (Nylon Smile) and Plastic are the songs (as opposed to Deep Water which isn't a song but a tedious and thankfully brief exercise in mood alteration) I'm really not feeling at all. May have to keep trying. xpost

I couldn't skip Plastic - those super gated (?) drums are too good, and then the heavy guitars hits in the chorus. We Carry On on the other hand doesn't do much for me, too samey all the way through (relatively speaking - in terms of tempo more than anything). Last minute when the guitar shredding starts is cool but the fact that it;s one of the longest tracks irks me.

"We Carry On", while it sounds groovy for a couple of minutes, does nothing that, say, Massive Attack's "Group Four" doesn't do significantly better.

The drums in "Plastic" absolutely piss me off.

Interesting reaction... how, exactly?

Combining the second half of this album with the second half of Mezzanine would melt faces.

Love love love The Rip, and the video... but the video only serves to remind me MORE of n.y. hotel by the knife? anyone else get that at all?

Oh, er, xposts, they just sound gimmicky and their harshness isn't beautiful-harsh, it's monotonous-harsh. To these ears at any rate.

Dan has just had an incredible idea and I am off to implement it in the form of an iTunes playlist.

Yeah, pretty certain it works best if you have all the Massive Attack songs (Man Next Door onwards) in order, and then Machine Gun -> Threads afterwards. The segue from (Exchange) to MG is fairly groovy.

HOLY CHRIST

AH but WAIT I've thought about this some more and come up with an even GROOVIER, more daring sequence:

1) Group Four
2) Small
3) Man Next Door
4) Machine Gun
5) Mezzanine
6) Magic Doors
7) Black Milk
8) Threads
9) Exchange

Mmmm. Segue from 3 into 4 is U&K, given the similarity-yet-utter-difference in the beat. It's like Machine Gun takes Man Next Door's beat and does WONDERFULLY NASTY things to it.