Portishead - Third (THE POLL)

My favorite song changes just about each time I listen to it, but for now it's "Silence".

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The Rip is the only track i love.

I like this album a lot, but I haven't really learned to separate the songs on it.

I still don't know what half of'em are called!

"Machine Gun" was my gateway, so my favorite song it will remain.

Voted "Machine Gun", but "Silence", "We Carry On", "The Rip" all seem like good choices.

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.

actually, fuck that, Machine Gun is immense.

Dude jed, I think you listen to "Small", "Magic Doors" and "Threads" again.

well 'Hunter' will get ignored here but it's so dreamy I'm votin it

Machine Gun gives the chills.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Damn, still stuck between "Silence", "The Rip", and "Machine Gun".

i would have voted for The Rip had i seen this poll.

I would have voted for any of them had I heard the album before today.

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.

aw I should have voted for "Small"

the rip is still so amazing

this whole album rules

yes it does

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

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).

yeah the whole thing flows so great...magic doors is gorgeous

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.

OK fine -- I'll play this again tonight.

No pressure.

xpost -- As well you should. So should I.

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.

(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")

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.

btw can I just

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HdIuusx2l0

I would like to have this band follow me around and be my theme music

yes this album is pretty fantastic

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.

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

also I'd forgotten about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCGTCUBKeos&feature=related

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.

YOU TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW

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:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP_yHOPt7U4&feature=related

wait that was a weird edit, I should have listened before I posted

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPHKGtVLBM8

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)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI8NuFAETMQ

Tricky covered the "If you lika me" song from Man With Two Brains. Bristolian trip hoppers love Steve Martin.

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.

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

OTM! I've been pulling it out a lot too.

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."

It's good, but I'm not sure about "better than Third"

Yeah I'm not expecting anyone to agree, but I listen to it way more often than Third.

how does it compare to the Anika album?

these days I would vote "Small" without any regret; it's the song I've played the most off the album

I didn't expect this to be my favorite album of the past 15 years

If anything I think more recent history has made it sound even MORE appropriately unsettled and fucked up.

http://devonrecordclub.com/2013/11/11/portishead-third-round-57-nicks-choice/

Small 0

this is still an incredible travesty

yeah i don't understand that at all

that's madness

like, it might be their best song, give or take a strangers or a cowboys

or in certain (cheerful, uplifting) moods a half-day closing

god it seems like this came out YESTERDAY

I never bothered with this after being so disappointed by the second album (that I was so looking forward to, dummy was soooo much my album of 95). I did not trust my friend when he was raving about 3rd when it came out (he shared many stoned listens of dummy with me in our bedrooms and morocco among other places- that was the glastonbury year) but after reading this thread, I will investigate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-mc7D6hs5U&feature=youtu.be

With Beth on vox as you may gather from the title. Pretty stunning.

overly polite

What happened to that second Beth Gibbons albums? Sure it was supposed to be coming out late last year.

that video is the shit

Is that Black Sabbath the movie?

according to jjj it is

Small 0

this is still an incredible travesty

― imago, Monday, November 11, 2013 3:56 PM (1 year ago)

otmest lj's ever been

I need to revisit this album
Boringly, the Rip, all the way.
Just love the way it moves

this album is still so amazing, heard it last week.

i had an mri done today and parts of it sounded exactly like my memory of 'machine gun'

the only song i care at all abt on this is nylon smile fwiw

Hated this album when it came out. I should give it another try.

Afert all these years it falls into the admire rather than love camp for me.

I still think this album probably works better for people who didn't give much of a shit about Portishead before this album. Because if you'd settled into a comfortable relationship with the band prior to this one, this album is either a welcome progression or a slap in a face.

anyone who thinks this album is a slap in the face should listen to the s/t again and stop being silly

I don't care for the first two albums but Third is great. The Rip is a worthy, if obvious winner though. I kind of wish there was more like that on this album.

The Rip is a worthy, if obvious winner though. I kind of wish there was more like that on this album.

You should probably check out the Beth Gibbons and Rusting Man record if you haven't already.

I haven't! It never occurred to me to listen to Beth Gibbons solo. I'll give it a listen, thanks

this album is unreal

it sure is. when it was released i was hoping it would signal the beginning of the second epoch of portishead since they came back stronger than ever. alas

there was also this subsequent single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5hpnLIswbQ

Third is an incredible album. For all the ballyhooing about them changing their style, it was the smartest move on their part to carry their sound forward and also still make it seem out of time. Favourite moments include the triphop marshal outro of "Hunter", the slow fade-up of drums on "The Rip" and Will Gregory's fractured contribution to "Magic Doors".

"small" is so fuckin evil

never heard "chase the tear" before, that is good shit

only one vote for plastic is fuckin criminal

"small" is so fuckin evil

brad otm

Chase the Tear would fit nicely on the last Jane Weaver album.

I interviewed Utley last year as part of my work on the Algiers feature; after we finished, I added a note that I was a huge fan and looking forward to whatever might be coming next. He responded with a laugh and chuckle, so who knows.

a laugh AND a chuckle can only mean Fourth's imminent arrival

Ha, more like smirk and chuckle but anyway.

this record is so overwhelming man

Perfect band, perfect album

This, Slowdive and Double Negative are quite the "comeback" records. All three nearly flawless and career defining.

I was blindsided when it came out; I didn't believe it could be as good as Dummy.