Celebrity Rumors | Portishead’s Third

Portishead’s Third

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I am pleased to bring you another great pre-release review today that almost never happened. My friend Scott after seeing the exposure I got for Death Cab for Cutie, a band he doesn’t think is as good as Portishead, revealed he had an advance copy of Third from Portishead. After revealing my ignorance of the band the friendship was nearly ended, but some humble groveling and realizing I recognized Beth Gibbons from her solo album, he relented. I hope some of you appreciate what I have done for you.

I gave an honest listen to the album, then did it again and thought I liked it. Then I took a listen to some older Portishead I was able to find around the web and decided I still liked it, but I didn’t love it. Beth’s vocals still call out the emotion in me, and I thought I would give a listen to her solo album, Out of Season, then I decided I didn’t care for Third at all.

Third opens with a song called Silence, which I wish it had been for the first half of the song. It starts out with someone speaking Portuguese, which I pat myself on the back for recognizing. A search for the translation brought me to a comment on Matt Rutherford’s review.

“Be alert to the rules of 3.
What you give, will return to you.
That lesson, you have to learn.
You only earn what you deserve.”

Well after that little bit of pomposity it is a good thing they had it in a language few of their fans speak. Because what they gave was very little, and I fear if they earn what they deserve they will have to give back to the studio everything and then some. This album doesn’t live up to the nearly mythic reputation Portishead seems to have that I didn’t know about until yesterday. Thankfully Bristol, England has other bands soon to be releasing albums that might make up for this bit of tarnish.

In short, Beth is the highlight of the entire album. Beyond that I can’t say much positive about the experience, other than I now appreciate Dummy and Portishead their first two albums. Third is sulkingly moody and it will probably be a long time before I consider listening to it again. I hope it won’t be another ten years though, and they will learn from this mistake and go back to their roots.

Portishead - Official Site

Portishead - MySpace Site

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