Electronic > Trip Hop / Big Beat Electronic > P > Universal Music

Advantages: First new LP in over a decade
Disadvantages: Terrible lyrics

Portishead - Third (Island Records) The release of Third by Portishead has been imbued with a heavy cultural significance. It has been reviewed on the Late Review, generated acres of coverage in the music press and broadsheet newspapers and there is a growing online buzz. It feels less like a release more an event. In a music scene so deprived of anything approaching sonic innovation, there is a desperate desire for Third to be an audio panacea. ...
...hissing grooves of Dummy. Third is much closer to the disappointing harsh metallic sounds of the bands second LP. The songs are overloaded with heavy bleeding synths, high whining strings, heavy strained rhythm patterns and a far too many turgid guitars. Yes Third is dense but devoid of tension. It aims to be abrasive and harsh but comes across merely ingenuous and brash. You get the feeling that the band where aiming for something edgy, maybe ... Read review

Advantages: For completists only
Disadvantages: Sterile renditions, not representative of Portishead live.

PNYC is a recording of the band's concert at the Roseland Ballroom, New York to promote the then new album, Portishead. To release this subsequent to the album doesn't seem to serve a great deal of purpose. To my mind, there are several ways of looking at this. The first is a Portishead's Greatest Hits (live) album... unfortunately, Portishead aren't the kind of band who would be suited to such a record, as they write *albums*, records which hold ...
...album and mix them with those from others does not seem wholly sensible. The other is that this is a record of the Portishead live exprience for fans. This isn't the case - Roseland was a carefully planned, thoroughly rigid performance with a full orchestra, and thus entirely different from the real-world experience of seeing Portishead on their 1997 tour. So who is this aimed at? I guess me... the suckers who will buy anything a band releases, ... Read review

Advantages: Groundbreaking intro. to trip-hop
Disadvantages: Tears will well up. Guaranteed.

...~ The Album: Dummy ~ It's a matter of both quantifiable and objective fact that if an individual tells you he (or she) is dark, deep and twisted, he (or she) is extremely likely to be as dark, deep and twisted as a well planed, wafer thin sheet of MDF with a light pine veneer to match…it is also possible though - yet highly unlikely - that you have wandered into the wrong type of club on the back-streets of Barcelona where PVC is awash, everybody ...
...John Lewis. Gibbons' voice on Dummy is breathy, breathless at times and at many junctures so raw and overcoming that you can hear her bitter sweet vocals against the distinct backdrop of dry lips parting and lungs reeling back the air to feed the next tortured line of the track. The lyrics in their own right, are so beautifully moving and full of innermost expression that it makes Jim Morrisons' highly acclaimed poetic mumblings sound as self exploratory ... Read review

Advantages: Every songs a winner
Disadvantages: It needed to last longer

How many people can say they've listened to an album where every song on it is truely amazing! Well ner ner ner nern er! i can this is sheer brilliance. I bought this album after listening to it at a friends house and basically went straight out and bought it. Everysong was just amazing. Undenied is my favourite where she excels herself. Her voice, the lyrics just moved me literally. I mean one minute I'm sat on one side of the room and the next ...
...power of her voice. Well anyone who is into this true intense, beautiful form of dance music please do yourself a favour and be a liquor saver - go out and buy it! Spend your money on something more worthwhile than booze like I did. Well I was muchos imprestos with this album and I don't half talk some bull rush but it's because I truely am excited through this album. Along side with undenied other favourites include only you and humming. - Sheer ... Read review

Advantages: Very different, some nice songs on there
Disadvantages: Might be a bit too wierd for some, last two tracks were a bit weak

This album is quite unique in its style. The music is mainly electronic with some weird singing and some unusual angles to approach music to. It might sound bizarre, but it is a good album. It's an eleven track album and many of the songs have a strange feel about them. For example, "The Captain" starts off with a feedback type noise that makes a slow, varying tune for a couple of minutes before anything else really comes in. Some tracks really ...
...is no drum beat. They are very fond of unusual singing and unusual lyrics and really seem to like their use of the multi-tap delay effect which can sound really bad, but these are masters of the effect. Highlights of the album include Neverland (on of my favourites), We Share Our Mother's Health and Marble House. All amazing songs. I wasn't so keen on the end of the album, the last two tracks were a bit of a let-down for me, but perhaps thats just ... Read review