The thread for Portishead "Third"

Listening now to what may possibly be a raw mix

plz explain? promo? leak? friend of the band/studio tech/label?

Mickey?

Leak, but the source is vague about details.

Mmmm...this just continues to get better.

I'm 3/4 of the way through my first listen...I have no idea what to make of this so far. Very different from the first albums, thankfully.

"Machine Gun" sounds massive.

fuck you all

Stevie T told me this album didn't so much exceed his expectation as smash them into a million pieces.

VERY EXCITED.

When is this officially released?

4/28

SO FAR AWAY ARGH

so I guess you're holding out then?

Yeah, I'm definitely holding out; I don't really look for leaks.

if Beth Gibbons didn't have such a nice voice, this album would never get played again at my house.

Jess's "first impression" piece is pretty much essential reading: http://idolator.com/365148/portishead-take-it-to-the-brink-but-hold-back

(Oh yeah, except for the part about the second record being slumpish...*shrug*)

oboioboioboioboy!

http://i30.tinypic.com/iwrhis.gif

(that's called hyper.gif btw)

(and it's totally justified)

I cant wait for the release. Where can i hear this?

look alive, it's on pirate bay now. nice and fast :)

"Especially when you'd rather be doing (and I'd rather be hearing) things like "Hunter" with maybe the best guitar bit I'll hear all year"

Correct. I'm really digging this so far. Fans will be in spite of the lack of identifiable "stand out" tracks. However, I am still unsure whether it really is a step forward for them, perhaps it is a step side-ways.

listened to this twice today. this is v good. fucking dark as all hell.

o my god it's good
almost every track is a standout so far
did you guys hear 'we carry on'?? oh hell, they're all good

However, I am still unsure whether it really is a step forward for them, perhaps it is a step side-ways.

i'd say this is pretty indisputably not-at-all true! put this above or below their first two, but it is certainly not on the same plane

Very understated and groovy so far. Interesting.

Stevie T told me this album didn't so much exceed his expectation as smash them into a million pieces.

This. Times about a million. I'm not a big Portishead fan but I'm REALLY enjoying this.

This is excellent. SWOON @ 'Hunter' altho I guess that's one of their more 'predictable' tracks/closest to their older sound.

holy shit this is good. the rip is AMAZING. thank you 'i love music' folks for letting me know it had leaked.

This thread made it on a big fan site:

http://pheadweb.com/p_news.html

It's just so great when an album lives up to it's length in coming. The awesome 'Machine Gun' stands out as it's sound and approach is quite different to anything else on there.

All links posted by fans will be removed immediately unless they hook a bro up.

ah pirate bay, gottit

I presume 'Silence' is meant to stop abruptly like that?

Yeah, I think the running length matches the one posted on the official site.

"Silence" and "Machine Gun" are the one-listen standouts

I presume 'Silence' is meant to stop abruptly like that?

-- Matt DC, Saturday, March 8, 2008 3:54 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

wouldn't bet on it.

generally want to hear this properly, uh, but i like it obv.

I reckon it is. Hence the title.

oh the irony

i guess it depends how much 'silence' actually follows it on the record. another way in which mp3 rips suck.

Some of the "every instrument playing the same riff" parts reminded me of the end of The Stooges' Ann - like the end of Small, for instance. In a good way, though. :-)

he mp3s all have about 5 seconds of extra silence (see "Magic Doors" -> "Threads," which are supposed to run together)

Fucking hell - Machine Gun! That's one of the most insistent, emotionless, mechanised drum loops I've ever heard.

Also, Small is STONER ROCK. I keep expecting the Kyuss-esque heavy guitars to pile in any minute.

I hope a vinyl version comes out on Invada

Pff, this stuff is so relentlessly bleak that I'm not sure how often I'll have the courage to put this on (says reformed pseudo-goth)

i don't find this too bleak as compared to burial for example. i see it more as a cold-hot affair. like a glowing glacier. or rubbing your hands in snow. this feeling of warmness coming from the cold. the first four songs except the third which is a little bit boring are portishead grand cru. after that i am not too sure yet.

ugh. i don't want to listen to much like this at ALL right now. i'll probably put it away until halloween ...

"machine gun" is crazy though

I like it! ...exceedingly strange melodic sense in many of these songs, esp. the first and last. The last track is a real stand-out for me.

I'm loving "Small" right now. Above comment OTM re. weird melodic sense. Also I'm pretty impressed by how coherent the sound and atmosphere throughout this record, considering it's been 10 years in the making.

Enjoying this so far. It's their rock album!

It's less coherent in sound than the last two - I put that mostly down to the unexpected pastoral moments - the end of The Rip is astonishing.

I think Jess gets it maybe the wrong way round in his review - this doesn't feel shackled by their 90s records at all to me. This is down to the beats more than anything else, although they can be quite sparse there's a lot of momentum there that's absent in the first couple of albums.

Actually if this album reminds me of any 90s album it's not Dummy at all, but Mezzanine. It's there in the heavy claustrophic sound, the coiled spring feel, everything closing in, and most of all those moments when the guitars pile in.

Just on Machine Gun - amazing! Obviously the beat is phenomonenal, but the melody is absolutey lovely as well.

The 80s synths have just come in! Great stuff.

phenomonenal

Good word.

The synths at the end of Machine Gun reminds me of Vitalic's The Past a little bit.

Let me hear you say this shit is bananas
B-A-N-A-N-A-S
(This shit is bananas)
(B-A-N-A-N-A-S)

Again
This shit is bananas
B-A-N-A-N-A-S
(This shit is bananas)
(B-A-N-A-N-A-S)

makes me wish i'd gone to ATP and heard these songs for the first time that way - i'd avoided the youtube clips of their sets before hearing this

one minor gripe: would've loved Beth's voice to be more spacey and twisted (as on 'Half Day Closing') on the first track, just for that added EVENT effect.

"nylon smile" is nice. sounds like they've been listening to some broadcast

would've loved Beth's voice to be more spacey and twisted (as on 'Half Day Closing') on the first track, just for that added EVENT effect.

I love the fact that they leave it for two minutes before she comes in though. Got chills when she did.

If Can were French.

I like how the production seems so thoroughly unpolished. Agree with Matt that it feels more like Mezzanine than any of the previous Portishead albums - but as if MA had recorded it in Hannibal Lecter's basement rather in a seemingly perfect vacuum. Hunter, the Rip and Machine Gun work very well after two listens.

I like how the production seems so thoroughly unpolished.

I gather it's not mastered yet though, the end result might be less lo-fi.

I hope it isn't.

I dunno, a couple of tracks could use a bit of polishing amd fattening IMHO. I'm a bit of a sucker for clean production, though.

yes, a little more bass would be welcome

No-one watercooling?

Also thinking of the extremely edgy production - there's no attempt to conceal the loops and electronic sounds to make the whole thing "organic". I don't mind a bit of mastering, but hope they maintain that rawness.

Is that a cookie request, Mark?

om nom nom

nom?

I don't think this is an early master. Would they really work on it for ten years and then circulate a "rough" version like that?

Anyway, the rough sound is actually the most pleasantly surprising thing about it.

Is anyone else finding this album to be exceedingly re-listenable?

Not as such, no.

I'm listening to Hunter, Nylon Smile, The Rip, We Carry On and Machine Gun fairly repeatedly. The rest of the album, not so much.

Mark - om nom nom now available...

"Small" is also a highlight

Have they announced what the first single's going to be?

The guitars in We Carry On are fucking awesome. The groove is even better.

Yeah, it's a great tune. The driving bass thump is really exciting.

Yes, that's my favorite so far. That bass line is unstoppable

Mind you, when it goes all Blade Runner / Terminator / Vangelis in Machine Gun, that's pretty fucking awesome too.

Actually if this album reminds me of any 90s album it's not Dummy at all, but Mezzanine. It's there in the heavy claustrophic sound, the coiled spring feel, everything closing in, and most of all those moments when the guitars pile in.

really good thread guys. i'm waiting for the CD release, but this post ^^ makes me want to hear it more than anything so far. love love LOVE mezzanine, so much.

I still hate all of you.

(Not begging for a download link or hookup, just me reiterating that I'm totally hating on everyone who hears theis before me without quarter.)

It's considerably less densely layered than Mezzanine. Has the same weird creepiness, though.

Magic Doors is getting much love from me right now - that 70s psychedelic fake Indian feel plus what sounds like a muffled underwater trumpet solo = big heart signs.

We Carry On was my immediate favourite. When the guitars come in it's like some alternate universe Joy Division.

I absolutely love the experiment of Deep Water, too.

And the way the riff builds in The Rip.

I wish I could think what the melody of the Magic Doors reminds me of.

Magic Doors is really growing on me, actually. The beat's good, and I like the unexpected leap to a major key in the chorus.

I was expecting The Rip to be a scratchy instrumental.

Read somewhere that 'Machine Gun' would be the single. Doubt it really but this would be great - for the video potential if nothing else.

Just curious.. why do people assume they've been working on this for ten years, as opposed to taking the last 9 off and spending a year on this?

i like the guitars on "we carry on" too. they come on four times. the first and third time they have a sonic youth sound to my ears, noisy in a structured way. whereas the second and the last time there definitely is a powerful post-punk feel à la joy div (as mentioned before) to them. or am i hallucinating?

"deep water" sounds like a leftover from the first sparklehorse album. psychedelic folk.

We Carry On is def. my standout from the first few listens.

Umm...I really should refrain from commenting on this album until I hear it a few more times. That said, it seems maybe you guys hyped this up a bit too much. I don't see it having the longevity of Dummy or S/T. A lot of it feels unfinished right now. Oh well. Here goes spin #2.

Spin #2 is when it starts to get REALLY good.

Yeah, the second listen is when shit started coming together for me on this one.

Holy hell, you're right about the Vangelis/Terminator ending to 'Machine Gun'. Sounds like something like play over a slow pan of the skyline of Airstrip One.

to play, rather.

Yeah the 1st listen was a bit hard for me. Seemed a bit samey and the general bleakness got me down.

The more I listen to this the more I'm convinced that HI DERE is going to love this.

This is properly awesome.

Yes, it is. Loving The Rip most of all, so far.

The mid-section of Small, when the weird bass ululation, scrape-y guitar and odd organ come in, is wicked. Then some kind of fucked-up cello and weird computer screams in the background. This album is moody as fuck. The (sonic) cracks around the edges make it much, much more authentically unsettling (to me) than Mezzanine (which I love the first side of).

The whole thing is like the soundtrack to a really frightening sci-fi horror movie, like Alien or something.

I was hoping "watercooling" was a new term to express the phenomenon of waning enjoyment of new music caused by people talking about it as a big ticket item too much.

I take it it refers to some sort of download thingy though.

never read an album's thread before you hear the album

This thread is a bit like watching the Oscars being dished out to films that have yet to be released in the UK.

Yes, that's pretty much what current music talk is about on ILM. Case in point the new Bauhaus thread, where everything had been said two months before album release. Oh, well 21st century and all that...

You say this as if ILM (or the whole internet) hasn't been like this for at least five years now. Dizzee Rascal, anyone?

No I think 'watercooling' refers to that thread with Kate StClair on it.

Oh how many ways one can water cool.

watercooler thread is just a front for illegal music trafficking. ban this sick filth.

what happens by the watercooler stays there.

or you can take it outside with your fag

What happens if Hot Water Music releases a new album?

other than "nobody cares" I mean

Yes this is much better than discussing the album isn't it?

you don't like fun!

unlike the rest of us portishead fans who - oh. ok. I'll get me coat

SRSLY HATE YOU GUYS

and here we were, watercooling, thinking it'd make HI DERE feel better

;_;

I think the thing I am really mad about is that when I hear this album and go completely gonzo for it and rush to ILM to post about it, everyone will be bored with talking about it and I'll be bimbling along all by myself on this thread.

Hi HI DERE. I'll 'bimble along' with you once the album has actually hit the shops, if you like.

^_^ yay

You see, there's only 121 messages on this thread so far! How many did the main "In Rainbows" thread get? This'll leave that one for dust mate!

Yeah I'm not too worried for this thread. This is the biggest release of the 00's after all. I was just disappointed to see that happen to the Bauhaus and Goldfrapp threads.

Is 'bimbling' a new verb?

Is its etymological derivation what I suspect?

Bimble will be along later, I guess.

November, maybe,

I was just disappointed to see that happen to the Bauhaus and Goldfrapp threads.

you're disappointed that people don't want to wait 2-3 months for the release before listening to and talking about it?

If Can were French.

-- Scik Mouthy, Monday, 10 March 2008 09:33

this is basically exactly what i thought when i saw them at atp.

that, and "omg they got FAST!"

you're disappointed that people don't want to wait 2-3 months for the release before listening to and talking about it?

Nah more that you'd get isolated posts now and then, as people got hold of the leak, but never any fully-fledged post-release frenzy.

If Can were French.

i don't get this.

i dunno, i remember the Kish Kash and Human After All frenzies way before release (xp)

Just listened to it through on a damp, blustery walk, and it really came together. The only tracks I'm not totally digging now are Plastic, the chorus of which is so hysterically anguished that it verges on self-parody, and Threads, which there's nothing wrong with but suffers from dimishing returns being placed at the end of the album. I would've finished with a lighter, more delicate piece rather than the doomiest track on there. Incidentally, the backing on Threads reminds me of the slower, creepier end of early Nirvana.

Some of Beth's melody lines are extrodinary, a deal twistier than anything she's done before.

i like how Threads ends. one of the doomiest finishes i've heard on an album (i don't listen to metal tho). reminds me of the alien walkers 'horn' sound in WOTW.

Remember how this album used to be titled 'Alien'?

It did? Perfect!

I've stopped listening until I've got the real CD - like I always do with leaks. I'm happy that it's great & I like it, and now I won't spoil my enjoyment any further. So I'll be back when Dan wants to talk as well :-)

Wasn't Alien the title of some fake demos that were circulating or something?

xpost - wow Stan, great willpower!

impressive discipline

The end of Threads makes me think of the end of Children of Men - except instead of the good ship Tomorrow appearing out of the mist, it's a GREAT HUGE geordie LOOMING DEATH SHIP.

I wonder if it's named after Threads the film or if that's just a doomladen coincidence.

i think it's a statement on the futility of discussions of leaked albums

the futility of people who haven't heard it joining in, maybe!

I kind of assumed the BBC-film reference, but I always do (parents from Sheffield instilled with nuclear terror @ "the shop around the corner being flattened and that women pissing herself with fear").

"deep water" sounds like a leftover from the first sparklehorse album. psychedelic folk.

My first thought was that it could almost pass as one of those VU songs with Mo Tucker on vocals.

I hear some influence of the Silver Apples on "We carry on".

My first thought was that it could almost pass as one of those VU songs with Mo Tucker on vocals.
you don't mean afterhoursdo you? were there any other songs during the lifetime of vu, maureen tucker sung on?

people were saying a while back that one of the new songs played live was just a silver apples song with beth gibbons singing something else on top, right?

xp I was thinking specifically of "I'm Sticking With You."

(But "After Hours" works too. I don't have all their stuff, so I assumed maybe there were a couple others she sang on.)

"We Carry On" sounds like NIN.

haha. this thread. one for the ages. yes, we are all in this bitch together.

Gets a bad review in the new Wire!

Because it's on a major label?

too pop

Too derivative

damn those silver apples

I'll be interesting to see which reviewers dare give Portishead 08 a good one... for the past eight years, nothing's as uncool as liking mid-nineties darko electronica.

I'm expecting a 9.2 from P'Fork.

i'm thinking that i'm gonna pick this one up after the dust settles

It's £9.99 online HMV.

oops wrong thread. It's £7.99 online HMV.

i was going to get excited, then i realised that pounds aren't dollars

'we carry on' sounds like clinic to me. never bought either of the first two albums, but i'll be buying this. the ending guitar part on 'threads' reminds me of the guitar intro to 'iron man', but reversed. (pitch goes up instead of down) actually, the drum fills near the end of 'threads' also remind me of sabbath

And Clinic sounds like the Silver Apples.

heh, was going to wonder if that was the case. haven't heard enough silver apples to know. coincidentally, i did ask the local record store to order some of their albums just a couple days ago

"Third is released on April 28th, preceded by the single Machine Gun, which is available for download from April 10th and gets a physical release on April 14th."

single of the year! well, one of 'em.

God, "Silence" is a fucking awesome opener. I was all prepared to listen to this and be disappointed because I haven't had a desire to listen to their older stuff for at least a few years now, but this is like a random present from a friend when it's not your birthday. I can't wait til this comes out.

I finally decided to listen to this album really loud. That makes it about 100x better, by the way.

"Machine Gun, the first single from Third gets its first play on
Zane Lowe's Radio One show in the UK and will be simultaneously
available for download through www.portishead.co.uk

And you can pre-order the box set, limited to ten thousand
copies world-wide.

Available only through www.portishead.co.uk and including
USB memory stick, films, double vinyl, single etched vinyl
and limited addition artwork."

From today apparently, but no sign of box set pre-ordering when I just looked.

Deep Water reminds me of the Shortwave Set. Love this album, don't recognise any of the songs from ATP though.

It's up there now:
http://www.portisheadshop.co.uk/store/page4.asp?suptype=&t=1&sub_type=1&prod_id=2&col=30

LOl memory stick. Never thought Portishead would be into that--more the sort of thing Barrow would write a poorly punctuated blog about.

£40 is a bit much for that boring artwork.

The album is great though.

Is every band going to have to announce a £40 'boxset' of a vinyl copy of the album and whatever else they've got lying around now? Fanks Radiohead.

What were the expectations, that were smashed into a million pieces? And what do the pieces look or sound like?

The return of the 'art print' to albums = the 70s are here again.

Coz I'm real I prefer a really crappy poster with a 7 inch that's folded about 10 times so no one ever puts it up. Like LCD Soundsystem or QOTSA.

oh the USB stick is in the shape of a white P - that's kinda cool or at least would be if it had a bottle opener on the other end and tripled as a key ring.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/forkcast/49350-portishead-machine-gun

What a waste if that's the official vid.

Yeah, it should be Beth in a bikini booty-grinding a blinged-up Adrian Uttley while he's sat in a gold throne.

corny but i kinda wanted a jonathan glazer epic-o-rama vid for this

f'real

Does anyone know if the version on the internets is the final one ?

machine gun is alright and everything, but i hope it's not the best song on the album?

HOLY SHIT

FOR REAL WHAT AM I HEARING HERE, OMG

this video (official/final video or not) is a live/session version, the studio/album version sounds different (for sale at 7digital.com (320 kbps mp3, no drm) - see portishead.co.uk )

FOR REAL WHAT AM I HEARING HERE, OMG

brilliance, I think.

it sounds really shit on that video clip tho, i mean compared to even the torrent

Okay, even with it sounding like shit that's one of the greatest things I've ever heard. The menacing stasis is just phenomenal.

The download is £0.79 , that's only like 20 dollars or something :-)

this version does sound a lot better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1HZ6H_b8JY

srsly I may never need to listen to Nine Inch Nails ever again

(Not that this is what NIN is all about, rather that this is hitting those same pleasure buttons for me)

machine gun is alright and everything, but i hope it's not the best song on the album?

It's one of the maybe three best songs on the album. But that's OK because it's actually brilliant.

that's the studio version, yeah (xxxpost)

I am totally floored.

wait till you get to "Threads."

don't tease him

Tracks are popping up all over YouTube at the moment. Don't know how anyone's still resisting.

YMMV:

akstar666 (15 hours ago) Show Hide
+2 Poor comment Good comment
Marked as spam
Reply
album is released on 28th april but it was leaked on 7th March.... this is the worst song on the album, cant believe theyd release it first :\ ...but the rest of the album is literally awesome

Oh wow, literally awesome!

inspiring awe

I am literally happy that the single sounds as good as it does.

The bit in the middle of Machine Gun when the sub-bass comes in, before the 80s synths, is spine-tingling - not sure if it'll really pick up on a video stream though. I love how inhuman it all sounds.

I'm really looking forward to Dan hearing Silence, or The Rip, or Small now.

I'm not sure how much I'd care for Machine Gun if not for the scary synth coda.

Y R they NIN now? :(

No, not at all. That was about Dan's pleasure buttons.

Machine Gun is the logical endpoint of their obsession with juxtaposing human frailty with mechanical coldness.

it's v Carpentery

(John not Karen)

hell of a satisfying record this.

Can someone take a shit on pitchfork already?

huh? why?

I was gonna ask...

When I loaded this into iTunes I dragged it into my "downloads" folder, and the tracks ended up in reverse order — but I didn't realize this until later. It's probably the prejudice of a first listen, but I find this arrangement more effective: it starts about as doomy as it gets, but with "Hunter" as the penultimate song there's a shimmering opening, as if suggesting redemption, though that huge whammy'd guitar sound is almost ecstatic about the doom; then with "Silence" the album goes throttling toward inevitability before getting abruptly cut off. It's like a movie that starts slow but delivers in the end when you understand where it was going.

(Except, of course, it's not supposed to go that way.)

OMG I can't believe this band released a new album. The coffee shops around here haven't finished playing their last one. Every day. For the past ten years.

'Machine Gun' is devilishly boring stuff. Really can't understand this excitement about Portishead - I was so glad that the 90s passed forever.

So far I've heard 'Machine Gun' and about two others on youtube. It's hard to criticize it really. It all sounds very well-crafted, inventive, creative with the production, very organic etc. etc.

All I know is that my reaction to the first Portishead album when it came out, and also the Beth Gibbons/Rustin' Man album, was like 'wow'. I bought them both but I've probably only played them through about five times each. I think, if I dare say it, that there is something contrived about Beth Gibbons' vocal style (despite the fact that it is very alluring and superficially appealing) and also that there are never any truly great songs, only clever, creative tracks. I don't like to seem mean spirited about people who are obviously very, very good at what they do but I think that's where they fall down and why, if I bought this album, I would probably never listen to it.

Ah, the backlash. And it's not even out yet. LOL internet

OMG I can't believe this band released a new album. The coffee shops around here haven't finished playing their last one. Every day. For the past ten years.

-- fields of salmon, Monday, March 24, 2008 6:04 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link

i don't actually believe you. "Portishead" was not a coffee shop album. we would have a lot of clinically depressed baristas if it was.

Odds are I'm going to play this Portishead album more than I'm going to play the new Cure album.

Odds are that will be true for most people here, I imagine.

Well yeah, but most people here aren't gigantic Cure zombies!

Hahaha!

I agree with Dan.

i'm looking forward to finally hearing the slowdive cover

and i'm a cure zombie who somehow deems portishead 2008 to be a lot more relevant than the cure 2008 (or was that 2009), for what it's worth

The San Francisco coffee shops I frequent do indeed play Portishead on heavy rotation.

Odds are I'm going to play this Portishead album more than I'm going to play the new Cure album.

What is this, Goth Trumps?

Yes!

I can't stop listening to "Machine Gun". It's so awesome.

great album..posx

surprised at all the rave reviews! excited

i have it if u need a zpp

Danbunny - link deleted. Sorry, but sharing entire albums here isn't really cool.

I've also pretty much stopped listening to this until I get a real copy.

Does anyone know if that early leak was final master or not? I hope so.

That leak = not the final master apparently.

i'm not that bothered either way but if the switch to fx drums part of 'machine gun' was recorded live then cool, otherwise that bit could be tidier

Odds are I'm going to play this Portishead album more than I'm going to play the new Cure album.

Haha - I was thinking exactly the same thing about the upcoming Ladytron album, but I suppose I could also say this re. the new Portishead. God knows when/if that Cure album is gonna come out anyway.

Sad Robert Smith is Sad

http://i28.tinypic.com/2n0oh7c.jpg

I hate you so much, ugh.

i don't actually believe you. "Portishead" was not a coffee shop album. we would have a lot of clinically depressed baristas if it was.

It is and we do.

hahah

barista/fine arts students

paul morleys comebacks on BBC2s Later reviewing this.
someone compared some of it to Neubautens industrial styles : marks and spencers industrial, and then finished with demented new age

guess he's not a fan.

Live performance here: http://current.com/items/88899146_portishead_in_portishead

legit version leaked.
in other news: i hate saying "legit"

it's just okay, you know? an okay portishead album. it'd like to say that if they'd released it in 2002 or something i'd feel more excited and happy about it but, really, i don't think that'd have been the case.

If they'd released it in 2002 it would probably have been hit with a wall of "lol 90s" disinterest and slipped into relative obscurity, a bit like Massive Attack's 100th Window. That might still happen, but I doubt it.

Is the 'legit' leak any different to the old leak then?

sounds a bit better.

100th Window is great.

Matt DC very OTM -- and I still think 100th Window is very, very, very good.

Ah ok - presumably there aren't 5 second gaps at the end of each either? I was a bit worried that the original leak was some sort of rough mix or something.

Live on Jools Holland tonight, 10pm, BBC2 for Britishers (and again on the full-length program on Friday). What is point of 'live' Jools Holland? No-one's actually going to really fuck anything up are they?

well then what's the point of doing it not live?

i think there still might be the gaps inbetween songs.

I don't really care either way if it's live, I just don't see the point of having a 30minute live show on Tuesday, and then an hour one on Friday with all the live bits and then an extra 30minutes of 'as live' stuff. Especially if I have to watch two songs and 'chat' of that Arctic Monkeys chap (his new band sound like Space. What's the point of that?).

Geoff Barrow did sort of fuck up the drumming on Machine Gun though, so I've seen my arse here.

xpost.

Bit annoyed that (surprisingly palatable) Arctic Monkeys side project thingy was deemed worthier of two songs than Portishead.

All in all, I didn't mind anything in this ep of Later, though acoustic guitar and harmonica dude was quite dull - sorry to get off topic.

Bit annoyed that (surprisingly palatable) Arctic Monkeys side project thingy was deemed worthier of two songs than Portishead.

All in all, I didn't mind anything in this ep of Later, though acoustic guitar and harmonica dude was quite dull - sorry to get off topic.

Ak, double post.

thematically and sonically, this reminds me (in a good way) of scott walker the drift

"Machine Gun" at the end of Later OBLITERATED the whole of the preceding half hour - haha nervous Cameronite audience!

I looked at Donald Sutherland for two whole minutes before I realised it was Eric Burdon.

http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/3158523

anybody know who did publicity for this album? i dl'd a zip and wrote the review, my editor wants promo art

the Coachella webcast sounded great, sound quality was pretty good for a webcast, nice camera work, etc. and the new songs were integrated well into the set. album in stores tuesday; anyone else waiting to hear it then?

they were inmense at coachella.

sia michel's 1.5 star review in blender is just dumb.

Tiny mix tapes review couldn't be more idiotic:

Third exists to be listened to, ironically, in places like coffee-shops; the difference between this and past work is that this record might make casual listeners frown over their coffees. Again, that’s probably Portishead’s intent

That is written by someone who thinks they're a hell of a lot cleverer than they really are.

So where is everybody who held out for the legal release?

i'm getting it today! haven't heard the full album, just the "machine gun" single and new songs from youtube (ATP, Coachella)

also, this Amazon review is golden:

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
SO DIFFERENT BUT OH SO SCRUMPTIOUS!, April 29, 2008
By Scott Daly "scottysauce" (San Ramon, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

I HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THIS THIRD ALBUM FOR MANY MONTHS NOW AND I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO PUT IT DOWN. SURE IT HAS MANY NEW SOUNDS BUT IT PUSHES PORTISHEAD INTO A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF GREAT MUSIC. PORTISHEAD A SEXY ROCK BAND? YOU BE THE JUDGE! AFTER MANY YEARS OF WAITING FOR ANYTHING NEW THEY TRULY DELIVER THE GOODS. BE SURE TO GIVE IT MORE THAN JUST ONE LISTEN BECAUSE LIKE ANYTHING GREAT IT GROWS ON YOU AND NEVER LET'S GO. IF YOU LOVE PORTISHEAD LIKE I DO YOU MUST CLICK YES! :)

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
Report this | Permalink
Comment

burning it soon!! excited. single sounds great

1. This album is king.
2. Does 'Silence' cut off like that on the official release or not?

Yes, it does.

Portishead makes me think of brick wall cafes and poetry slams and people wearing those big hat.s you know the ones I'm talking about

Berets?

I've just spent a bit of time rereading this thread. I'm intrigued by this pre-life of a record before its release.

Anyway, I finally have a copy of Third. I'm on my third listen now, and while the album as a whole is taking a bit of time to get under my skin, I'm already totally mindblown by the opener and by the one that sounds like The Him by New Order.

By the way, was anyone at the Brixton show recently? What's the deal with the Balkan folk support? Was this actually A Hack and a Hacksaw, as advertised? Surely not. Whatever, I couldn't wait for it to finish.

I wasn't there, but A Hawk & A Hacksaw are definitely Balkan folk.

So... I just bought this and am about to listen to it. The only thing I've heard to date is "Machine Gun", which I thought was unreal awesomeness.

dude,track by track review please

42 seconds into "Silence"

holy shit

I would love the album unreservedly if Tracy Thorn had replaced her.

fuck no, this is perfection

ps: 4 minutes into "Silence"

30 seconds into "Hunter"

holy shit, you guys, this is fucking unreal

oh shit, the guitars, holy shit

I'm not doing a full track-by-track because, based on my reactions to the first four tracks, the entire thing is going to be variations on my immediately preceeding posts.

good effort nonetheless

omg "Plastic" and that off-meter knocking sound running behind the verse, plus the distorted-synth chorus...

I'm surprised at how clean Beth's vocals are up to this point!

God, most of this feels like Portishead reinventing early-90s Warp Records and it's awesome.

Plastic is my least favourite, her vocals are too overwrought on the chorus.

Hehe, We Carry On is just round the corner.

oh shit, "We Carry On"

I was going to complain about the drums not being heavy enough but that would have missed the point of the song, wouldn't it?

It's like, the guitar kicks in and I went "OH! That's why the drums aren't heavier!"

These guys arrange the shit out of everything they touch. Impeccable.

There's a beautifully subtle detail in We Carry On: the unprecedented little synth wobble at 6.22, just as the fade-out begins.

Okay "Deep Water" into "Machine Gun" is just fucking awesome.

Ahem, radioooo ------>

I'm excited to give this my first listen in a short while. It is waiting for me.

"Let's take the most organic, analog-heavy, tender, traditional song we've recorded and segue it into a brutal mechanical grinder."

FUCKINGLOVETHESEPEOPLE

wow @ the rip

Okay "Deep Water" into "Machine Gun" is just fucking awesome.

Best song-to-song transition I've heard all year. I played it for the girlfriend last night, she was like, wtf.

actually, i think i love this. apparently my local newspaper thought this was crap. the only crap thing about this record is that pathetic review. i think i need to get that beth gibbons/rustin man thing. and then i need a glass of nice chardonnay.

and then i need a glass of nice chardonnay.

are you a liberal?

wine lovers and liberals go well together: both are better than the alternatives!

Absinthe-loving anarchists?

am i liberal? i try not to think about that whilst drinking chardonnay.

I'm sure it's just a meaningless coincidence, but "We Carry On" really sounds a lot like an old Flux Information Sciences track (that I've always liked) called "Charlotte Rampling."

I like this about as much as any new release I've heard this year.

Heh. I just listened to this and wanted to post about how much "We Carry On" reminds me of "Desert Search for Techno Allah" by Mr. Bungle.

The running tally of We Carry On comparisons, for the record:

"...some alternate universe Joy Division."

"they have a sonic youth sound to my ears"

"definitely is a powerful post-punk feel à la joy div"

"I hear some influence of the Silver Apples"

"sounds like NIN."

"sounds like clinic to me."

"sounds a lot like an old Flux Information Sciences track"

"reminds me of "Desert Search for Techno Allah" by Mr. Bungle."

There was actually a lot on Third that reminded me of various parts of the Disco Volante album, but that in itself was a pastiche of musical references that I'm not informed enough to understand.

It sounds like the Hollies.

(oh alright, it doesn't)

Track seven sounds like 1972 Hollies actually. Albeit played on an unstable Dansette turntable. Which is No Bad Thing.

Play it at 16 rpm and you could probably get it to sound like Mikael Rickfors as well!

Holy fuck.

I'm trying to think of a "love at first listen" record in recent memory that ALSO signaled such depth/repeated-listening rewards. Most of the records I swoon over on day one ultimately tank due to one-dimensionality or excessive novelty or whatever. This is a grower AND a shower.

Oh dude.

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/portishead/third?q=portishead

I didn't expect the general reaction to be so positive. Nice!

I've hit something of a block; every time I get to "Machine Gun", I stop playback and put that song on repeat.

Oh hell, I didn't bother to listen to this before release except for a few youtube clips, saw them at Coachella over the weekend, and then listened to the album in the car on the drive out. I'm now thinking I was listening way too quietly, because this is blowing me away on headphones.

"We Carry On" is fucking awesome, you guys.

"Machine Gun" bored me, but the descriptive reviews I've read of the rest of the songs makes me eager to hear them.

No critical closure until Geir has said his piece.

He'll like Deep Water and possibly The Rip but not the rest.

He will HATE "Deep Water".

Oh yes, he doesn't like bluesy chord structures or something. I forget how it works.

Actually he will probably not hate the album outright. It doesn't speak particularly to his talking points but there's a lot of songcraft going on here that he may appreciate, plus you can't really say it's tuneless or melody-free.

Holy fuck.

I'm trying to think of a "love at first listen" record in recent memory that ALSO signaled such depth/repeated-listening rewards. Most of the records I swoon over on day one ultimately tank due to one-dimensionality or excessive novelty or whatever. This is a grower AND a shower.

I finally got around to listening to this yesterday and I'm amazed at how awesome this is. I have nothing else to add other than it sounds a lot to me like a lot of the music that influenced early Broadcast (United States of America, Elephant's Memory) but is way better than early Broadcast for nailing the drugged-out paranoia of those records.

but is way better than early Broadcast

ahem! i beg to differ, sorry

I love early Broadcast, but yeah...this is a completely different (and way better) league.

"I hope a vinyl version comes out on Invada"

justlooking at the RIDONKULOUS limited edition box at the record store today. comes with all kinds of extra vinyl and ephemera and a usb port and naked pictures of portishead and god knows what else. 50 bucks at my store. i went for the relatively sane 30 dollar boris/merzbow deluxe package instead. and i contemplated buying the regular portishead vinyl but i chickened out for some reason. i haven't actually listened to them in years. since the first album.

"but is way better than early Broadcast for nailing the drugged-out paranoia of those records."

see, now i'm tempted.

The running tally of We Carry On comparisons, for the record:

someone e-mailed me this song, and it came up for the 1st time in shuffle and for 40 seconds I was completely derailed thinking that some unreleased 1969 Silver Apples song had just surfaced, that song is absolutely a straight up expert tribute.

I only listened to 'Dummy' once or twice when it came out, haven't heard anything else since, this new one is much more my speed

okay, now you've tempted me further, milton.

one more thing re: "Deep Water" -- put it in a playlist with this

Steve Martin & Bernadette Peters - "Tonight You Belong To Me" from The Jerk

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ikvby5

"Threads" is pretty unreal.

Ok, I agree, maybe I shouldn't have said "better" than early Broadcast, because I love those records as well. They are different, but they share the same reference points.

Oh, hyperbole, the trouble you get me into...

Listening to this the second time today. "We carry on" totally sounds like an outtake from the United States of America record. Awesome.

ha, someone's already made a mashup, the ukelele part is not only identical it's in the same key

http://youtube.com/watch?v=waJo1AtZaXQ

I’m interested in “Deep Water,” it’s such an amazing track. How did that come about?

Adrian Utley: We squabbled a lot about that. I thought it was shit for quite a long time. It was kind of based on a thing from Steve Martin’s The Jerk and Geoff suggested it and I just thought he was joking, but I think it’s cool now. I couldn’t really see its place on our record at all and I couldn’t see it in an ironic way and… I shouldn’t be slagging off that stuff, should I? But, I really like it now and I love the song that Beth has written on it now but at the time, I couldn’t see it.

Finally heard it.

Where to begin, indeed.

Has anyone said anything about how the conclusion of "Machine Gun" feels like an inversion of the end theme for Blade Runner, with the beats given overwhelming prominence over the doomed melancholia of the keyboards? Because that's what I thought of.

(Also, that the concluding air-raid siren guitar noise on "Threads" was like a monomaniacal V'ger theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Crossed with OMD's "Stanlow." Where the hell do I get these bizarre ideas.)

I don't have the time to read all 338 posts now so maybe what I'm saying here won't add anything new or interesting. This album has left me a little frustrated because it really lacks the flair of 90's Portishead. I miss the brass and string sections of "All Mine", the cool 60's Bond guitar of "Sour Times". Now, I like Portishead's dark side too, and I like it a lot. But this is ALL bleakness and NO style. It's like they thought "Let's see if you play this at your
next dinner party you stupid yuppie hipster". And it's all good, it's just that I prefer a little balance. Especially since Portishead was so good at the "other".

The one other think that I find upsetting is the late '60s stoner-rock guitar (I know it's not new, but it's definitely used more frequently in "Third"). To be honest, I've never really liked it because I don't think it goes with the music. I start listening to "Hunter" and getting really into it (the wonderful dissonant, unexpected chord changes) when all of a sudden "grrrrroooiiiiing". It's like some bearded dude from Woodstock decides it's his turn. Now, I understand why it's
there, it brings some power into the song, but it totally ruins it for me because it makes my mind instantly shift from this fucked up "chanson" mood to The Cream or something equally off-putting.

one more thing re: "Deep Water" -- put it in a playlist with this

Steve Martin & Bernadette Peters - "Tonight You Belong To Me" from The Jerk

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ikvby5

-- Milton Parker, Thursday, May 1, 2008 4:59 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

I was gonna say that, but I was pretty sure I am probably ignorant of like 7000 ukelele duets that sound exactly like it.

I start listening to "Hunter" and getting really into it (the wonderful dissonant, unexpected chord changes) when all of a sudden "grrrrroooiiiiing".

Those are three or four of the best seconds on the entire record. U MAD

^I just wish they'd used some effect or something. Maybe I'll get into it.

(psst Ned, show all the posts in this thread and search for Blade Runner or Vangelis)

Heheh, already looked back earlier and noticed that. John Carpenter came up as well, makes sense. I am intrigued to see that there was some near immediate consensus!

The way Beth's voice twists and contorts towards the end of Threads is astonishing. Reminds me of something Reynolds said once about closing tracks where the timbre of the voice tells you more than the words ever could (see also Something In The Way, Do It by Dizzee Rascal etc).

I think Deej mentioned it upthread among a couple of others, but "The Rip" is not getting as much love as it should. A song of two perfect halves.

And how is it only Dan has specifically pointed out the brilliance of "Plastic!" Those drums, people!

Alba said this some time back:

I wish I could think what the melody of the Magic Doors reminds me of.

I have to agree -- it's calling to mind *something* but I don't know what.

Fucking awesome, awesome, awesome. Blows their 90s stuff out of the water, and their 90s stuff was real good. I love how free they feel to take the songs in any direction at any time--they treat changing the arrangement or the specific sound of a part the way most bands treat changing chords or going to a bridge or new section. The whole thing is so structurally fucked but not a way that seems random or annoying. Basically it's one of the most liberated albums I've ever heard; like they have no idea that it's going to be heard by anybody other than them.

I miss the brass and string sections of "All Mine"

i listened to the s/t record a few days ago and my GOD what a fantastic song, i get chills just thinking about the brass going nuts with beth doing her "all miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine" part

I really like the transition from "Nylon Smile" into "The Rip"...sooo good. Those two songs meld very well. This album is incredible.

I could have sworn I raved about "The Rip" upthread, but I guess I didn't. It's the standout favorite for me. The looooooooong held vocal note is so great, and I love the simple, imperfect drums. The song is only about 4 1/2 minutes but it feels like it's 2.

I heard "Machine Gun" on the radio today - or at least the last part of it. It sure didn't sound like it came out in 2008. More like a much longer time ago. I was impressed.

Album of the decade.

that's a bit of a stretch

Not for me it isn't. It's fucking great. Beyond great.

I miss the brass and string sections of "All Mine"
Listen to: "La Belle Histoire D'Amour" by Edith Piaf :)

Even the first time I listened to Third, I got the same kind of whole-body chill I got the first time I listened to The Avalanches' Since I Left You and Life Without Buildings' Any Other City...and those remain #1 and #2 on my albums-of-the-decade mental list. I don't think including it in any kind of decade-centric ranking is a stretch at all.

oh i'd put it in my top 25 or so, just not the best of the decade. yet.

can i link to Ned's blog post, by the way? i mean, it's about the album, somewhat:
http://nedraggett.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/thoughts-on-listening-to-third/

Ned and I share a brain:

I don't see anything bumping Portishead out of #1 for me, but I kind of hope something great enough comes along out of nowhere and does. That, whatever it will be, is something I can't wait to hear.

-- Johnny Fever, Friday, April 11, 2008 2:45 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Link

Hurrah shared brains! Or something like that.

I had it on last night at a get-together of friends at the apartment just to see how it functions as background music -- we were all out on the balcony so the sound was intentionally muffled. (And everyone there had already heard the album or most of it.) Result: almost sounds even more ominous!

(And everyone there had already heard the album or most of it.)

I'd be more interested to see the reactions of those who hadn't yet heard it.

New favorite moment: the overlapping organ lines on "Small."

omg the sax solo on "Magic Doors"

Dan gives the impression that he's shut the door to his corner office and not moved all weekend, the record on endless loop.

yeah this hasnt failed to get better with each listen for me either, tho on my most recent listen it was nothing any more subtle than silence displacing the rip as my favorite track

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2005/03/13/robot1_wideweb__430x307.jpg

I saw a savior,
A savior come my way
I thought I'd see in
The cold light of day
But now I realize
That I'm only for me

If only i could see, return myself to me,
And recognize the poison in my heart
There is no other place, no one else i face
The remedy will break with how i feel

Here am I reflecting
What more can I say
For I am guilty
For the voice that I have made
Too scared to sacrifice a choice
Chosen for me

If only I could see
Return myself to me
And recognize the poison in my heart
There is no other place
No one else I face
The remedy will agree with how i feel

That's a sax solo? It sounds like a horse being sucked into a black hole, backwards.

^^ Best description of that sound.

I think the transition from Deep Water into Machine Gun is my favorite thing on the record, and one of the great triumphs of album sequencing.

It sounds like a horse being sucked into a black hole, backwards.

Amazing

It sounds like a horse being sucked into a black hole, backwards.

Another good one I read in a review:

The mating call of a brontosaurus crossed with a velociraptor coughing up a furball

Surpasses my own attempt:

Intergalactic humpback whales, humping.

Um, or you could just say it sounds like a processed saxophone.

or you could just say it sounds like a processed saxophone.

Quite

i say

So I sez to the band I sez

I am with Ned re the drums on "Plastic". They jumped out at me the moment I heard it (from another room no less). And I love the way "Silence" just... stops suddenly.

I was never a Portishead fan but this album is groundbreaking and I don't like using superlatives often.

"Silence" is by far my favorite track on this

<i>I was never a Portishead fan but this album is groundbreaking</i>

^^^me too.

Third is amazing, and it will likely be album of the year, but it basically sounds like Broadcast under a heavy dosage of despair. All that Can, Silver Apples, Jean-Claude Vannier type shit happening.. Again, I love love love Third, guys, but this type of album isn't totally unprecedented.

What he said -- it's an excellent fusion of both familiar touchstones and slightly more obscure ones while at the same time putting a very specific stamp on it that's clearly them while further not simply sounding like 'Portishead' much at all. First time that even suggests itself to me clearly is three songs from the end! Which is very much to their credit.

finally got it
listened through twice
some immediate standouts ('hunter', 'we carry on'), and plenty of growing potential for sure. i'm actually pretty excited about what i can get out of this record in the long run.
more varied and ambitious than the first two, but it would be naive to expect a retread after so many years.

Ah, I perhaps shouldn't have used groundbreaking to so heavily imply they're doing something completely left-field and new (well, except in relation to themselves, I guess). Broadcast comparisons also noted by my bf when he first gave it a spin. I should give them more of a listen too.

Album is better than Broadcast, but I can see the comparison.

i still dunno bout that, i reaaaaaaallly love me some broadcast.

portishead = thunderstorm
broadcast = lighter scattered showers, sunny spells

err... Joy Division = persistent sleet

Rotterdam termination source - canapes

this album is so not as "dark" as all the early talking point blog bullshit made it seem...the sounds may be real ominous and kind of scary or bleak but I'm not exactly crying into my iced coffee...listening now and I'm more like balling my fists and scowling at people and trying not to smash things...

this album is genius.

maybe that makes me "dark" but fuck it

"We Carry On" and "Small" are just so exciting to me...it's kind of like metal but the riffs are played on a keyboard and the guitar just kind of drifts in and out with those awesome stabbing noises and the drums and bass are all stripped and no-frills...so great!

So "Magic Doors" should totally be a single, y/n

i think 'The Rip' is next up - there's a video at least

I don't think they're playing Magic Doors live, so it's probably not on the cards.

Also, the video for The Rip is great.

"Magic Doors" is a favorite of mine, after ~10 spins.

Is there anywhere I can buy this in DRM-free mp3 form?

amazon?

not in the UK (bastards)

did anyone else notice that marcello writes in his blog about this album? on a one song per day base. today was "we carry on". i wanted to do the same but i never got any further than silence. additionally i didn't get past my mother tongue.

i heard that the original pressing of the vinyl in the US was warped....have any of you had problems? been waiting to buy it on vinyl

finally got it!! playing now. i love how fucking sprawling it is. gloomy sprawl.

Grawl. (The new genre name among the teeners.)

Plastic! the instrumentation is so rich,.

haha grawl

this drone on We Carry On makes me happy

You're not alone there.

yes this album makes me happy, too....i love it so, so much. however, I don't really see the "sprawling" observation here...seems pretty concise, each track explores an idea or two and then just kinda ends without ever really straying from that original idea. in fact, I wish it was longer. like maybe two or three times as long!

great synths at the end of Machine Gun

i mean sprawling in the sense that the songs, in and of themselves, aren't bound by a strict melody or structure. but it's my 1st listen, so

I really wish people would stop saying stuff like the songs, in and of themselves, aren't bound by a strict melody or structure because it is patently and demonstrably false.

if you wan't me to be more accurate, i might be able to later, but i'm just giving my 1st impression. sorry to fall short of your analytical skills, HI DERE

also kiss my ass =P

yeah but it's kind of ALL melody and structure on here....

if you wan't me to be more accurate

I lolled

ok. i'm wrong. FUCK

yeah but it's kind of ALL melody and structure on here....

i don't really know how much this means tho

i found it more textural, myself. and i think it would be shortsighted to say that this album is strictly structured and melodic. especially on the tracks where the melody fades into instrumentals to close.

it wasn't a judgment of the album re: good or great it was just in response to your claim about the songs being these massive unwieldy things which they are not... I mean fading into a few minutes of repeating instrumental phrases is keeping within a pretty specific structure

Yeah, but the instrumentals have melodies!

(xpost)

I mean fading into a few minutes of repeating instrumental phrases is keeping within a pretty specific structure

i agree, it is a specific structure but it's different from a lot of other music i listen to with stricter composition, centered around melody. that's what i should have said.

i also feel like some of the melodies on this sound very portishead to me, in that they're more atmospheric than composed.

And this is why music education is important, folks.

so you're here to educate people? isn't that incredibly pretentious?

this is why ppl don't post to ILM, because of its beloved teachers.

i'd rather talk about music with my elementary vocabulary.

i gotta agree with surmounter in that it's fair enough to have initial impressions. and if everyone had the same approach towards appreciating and responding to music, the medium would be very dull indeed.

incidentally, i recall listening to third for the first time and thinking that a lot of it sounded more liberated and less contained that the records that came before it. perhaps not 'sprawling' as such, but definitely a bit more expansive in sound. though as i mentioned somewhere upthread, the earlier portishead records are a pretty vague and irrelevant reference point for an appraisal of this one.

yeah it's 'looser'

(I think what Dan is getting at is that words like 'composed' and 'melody' and 'structure' are being thrown around without much regard for what they actually mean, it's all getting a bit Geir Hongro in here - it's nothing to do with the approach to listening per se)

well i think the crux of the problem tho is that you can't use a word without knowing the ins and outs of the definition. it's a conversation not a textbook.

Actually, you SHOULDN'T use a word unless you know the ins and outs of the definition because you might not actually be saying what you think you're saying and it makes it more difficult for other people to understand you. The entire point of a conversation is to exchange ideas and get your point across and, if you can't do that, you can't really contribute to the conversation.

x-post -- Surmounter, HI DERE actually DOES have technical music training and in fact knows what he is talking about. I've found this very helpful over the years since we like many of the same things, and it gives me both a greater knowledge and appreciation for those acts and songs. What's wrong with learning?

i know enough about the words i use to feel like i can contribute to a conversation.

what i don't like is when people have to lord their knowledge over me like my words aren't valid. i love learning, i don't like preaching.

i'd be much more open to hearing about your technical education if you didn't mock me with it.

i don't want ILM to be a place where i need to look every word up in order to feel like i can open my mouth.

i don't think there's anything wrong with learning. i think it's the tone that's the issue here. i won't argue that HI DERE has some extremely valid insights, and in fairness the highly refined level of music observation on ILM is the reason i generally spend more time here reading than contributing. but i just think that it's a little bit rich to shut down somebody who is trying to make a considered evaluation of what they're hearing.

fwiw i don't care if you're wrong man xp

also, i feel i'm getting the brunt of it b/c a lot of other people seem to have made a similar observation. just because there's a common reaction to something, doesn't make it entirely stupid.

what use is an education if you can't lord it over people

haha thanks =) xp

i mean, if that was directed to me

I wasn't trying to shut you specifically down, although I can see how it comes across that way. First reactions to things are fine and "valid" (if that word is even useful when discussing opinions) but so are responses to those reactions; my initial response is one of frustration that this album is getting tagged as "difficult" (whether intended positively or negatively) when it isn't. They're doing something different from what they did before, but most of the difference lies in the sounds they're using rather than the song construction or the melodic/harmonic choices they used; the most radical departure from a typical Portishead song on the album is "Deep Water"!

My second response was me laughing at a typo in a post where you promised to be more precise with your words, which, well, lol irony.

i didn't say anything about it being difficult. and your frustration isn't really because of me, but because of an overwhelming reaction to this album that i know nothing about. i have no problem with arguments, as long as they're respectful. i appreciate your knowledge, but it'd be nice if i could chime in too.

i know that was a dumb typo.

Jesus Christ

i'm just dropping in to say that i listened to this 2-3 times and i loved the beats/sounds/production tricks/instrumental playing/etc. but none of the vocals stuck with me at all, not even a little.

Even "Machine Gun"???

ok HI, it's really fine. you didn't mean to shut me down, i overreacted. big deal. life goes on.

yeah, i've heard machine gun maybe 5 times and i can recall the beat and the keyboard line at the end, but not the vocals. it's like her voice is being used as a pad or background part, or maybe it's just me.

see that's how i kind of felt too

I walked around singing that song for days after the first time I heard it. That vocal line immediately leapt out at me (and stays with me).

well, it usually takes me a while with vocals anyway. for them to leap out. but i don't know that minor/moody/dissonant thing they do with the vocals sometimes works and sometimes gets old.

this album sucks 95% of the tracks are grating carried by whats her name

yah it kinda sucks ass

grating carried?

http://www.metals-inc.com/imbargra.jpg

everytime i see this thread, or really any mention anywhere of the band or this record, i have to listen to it. aaugh.

I kinda agree with the lack of structure arguments 'cause after a few listens, despite the vocals i'm not hearing these as typical verse/chorus songs. The instrumental parts stand out much more, in my memory at least, and you could hardly argue that e.gs the drums and synths on machine gun follow normal pop music structure. My impressions may change with time of course. And I'm normally *very* vocal oriented so it's kinda weird they aren't sticking with me.

usic isn't really luriqua, is he?

careful what you say ledge

haha jk

:)

dummy to the death-- abandoning socalled trip hop which is really just dope music --> failure

I think Dummy is better than Third. yeah. But Third is still fantastic.

Third >>>>>> P >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Dummy

abandoning socalled trip hop which is really just dope music --> failure

i actually found that really refreshing, the change.

love that live album

Dummy>>Third>>>>>Portishead

Portishead isn't a bad album, even tho it's kinda grating.

that All Mine song tho, is still pretty classic

I don't think Portishead is a bad album at all either. Just significantly worse than the other two. It gets a little samey on side two.

definitely samey

^great album title

For Oasis records nos. 2 - 28 or whatever they're up to now.

I can see the argument for saying that "Machine Gun" has no verse-chorus structure if you completely block out the vocals, considering that the music track remains static until after the vocals drop out. There is a very definite verse-chorus structure to the vocal line, though; even if you ignore the pattern of the melodic line and the repitition of the text, you can break it down as "the verse is the part where Beth is singing in isolation and the chorus is Beth singing over a track of herself going 'oooh'". Additionally, the synth coda at the end actually sketches in the chord harmonies implied by the chorus, so the whole song is intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus, which is a pretty standard pop song construction.

Portishead>Dummy>Third

The juxtaposition of the drums and the achingly pretty, almost folksy melody in Machine Gun is what makes it work so brilliantly. I don't really get people saying it doesn't have a tune.

my initial response is one of frustration that this album is getting tagged as "difficult" (whether intended positively or negatively) when it isn't.

I have to disagree here. "Third" is definitely difficult.

I may be wrong but my impression is that some people are mixing up melody with harmony. I think it would be fair to say that there's less harmony in Third. Haven't listened carefully to all of it but I'd say "Machine Gun" for instance has almost no harmony.

...although it definitely has a melody.

There are background vocal harmonies in the chorus.

And the keyboard bit is harmonic, but other than that you're right. And I agree it is a fairly difficult album, though far from the most difficult I've ever heard.

What's difficult about this album? I don't get that at all, and this isn't the only place I've read it.

It's oppressive and quite rough. That turns some people off. It's all relative though, innit.

yah my coworker was thrown by the "aggression" as she called it. i guess that's difficult.

but that's kind of just taste too. i didn't find it especially difficult, which is a very vague descriptor. what does it even mean with regard to listening to something?

Difficult to resist hitting eject button, hurling CD across room

boring =/ difficult

that's the thing it could mean like 50 different things. u could definitely also argue that boring = difficult.

I think some ppl read "difficult" to mean musically/structurally complex or challenging, which really this album isn't. But it does have an opressive, fuckoff, strained mood to it, as chap points out. And that is something some people would find "difficult" - people like my mum would take one listen to this album and go "oh god this sounds so miserable and atonal and what the hell is wrong with her voice?" and not like it one bit.

this album sounds exactly like a portishead album!

er, cuz some people said that it didn't sound like them or something.

you guys got my hopes up. i gotta admit. i was in the mood for something new and state of the art or something. but it just doesn't thrill me. i was expecting it to blow me away sonically, but maybe that's the fault of my u.s. vinyl. i think it's a u.s. copy. it just doesn't sound that great. i did have a fun moment of WTF? confusion when i first put it on and didn't realize that the whole album plays at 45 RPM though!

it sounds like them taking a different approach

i think the instrumentation is really different, the vox are still them.

i mean, the songs are okay, but going by the descriptions on this thread i was hoping it would just astonish me. i remember buying the nice u.k. vinyl version of massive attack's mezzanine and putting that first record on and getting blown out of my chair by how loud and dynamic and metallic and cool it was. and i had kinda forgotten about that band after blue lines. i guess i was hoping for something like that.

yeah, a different approach...sorta. but really? it's about what i would expect in 2008. or even 1998.

yeah i get it. but 98 is coming back, at least fashion wise ;)

and there is nothing difficult about it. it's fairly simple and pleasant enough. whoever said that you won't be hearing this in a coffee house anytime soon is soooooo wrong.

"Difficult" is such a subjective concept anyway. I find weird freak-out stuff like Zappa and Beefheart fairly accessible, whereas there are acknowledge 'classic' acts whose appeal I can't make heads nor tail of, such as The Stone Roses and Bob Dylan. It's not a case of just 'not liking', I can tell something's there but I've just always failed to latch onto it. This is probably a thread in itself, isn't it?

yes

I think there's a legitimate use of the word "difficult" when describing music; a lot of atonal/post-tonal/12-tone music (pick yer favorite variant) is pretty hard to wrap your head around, largely because of the outlandish use of dissonance (I maintain that the only thing on Third that has anything to do with this school of music is "Silence"; everything else is pretty firmly rooted in Western pop/jazz in harmonic and melodic construction). I think the thing that's throwing people with regards to this album is its use of distortion and some of the instrumentation choices, although really the only difference I hear between this album and the previous ones is that it's less "samply" and more "synthy".

In many ways Scott is completely OTM; the only part where he's off is where he says he doesn't like the album. (ha)

in all fairness, i've only played it once. i'll play it again. but, like i said, i was kinda hoping it would leap out at me and grab me by the throat and give me the thrashing i so richly deserve. cuz i really want something new to love. but it didn't do that.

http://www.imeem.com/kendawg06/music/iyHUq7Vo/young_jeezy_blow_it_up_feat_r_kelly_young_dro/

I think the thing that's throwing people with regards to this album is its use of distortion and some of the instrumentation choices

Agree, although I would add the vague term "production" to it. My question is: isn't this is enough to make something sound difficult? You can have the most conventional (Western) melody/harmony and still make something difficult out of it, can't you?

If the melody in "Machine Gun" was "Happy Birthday" and the other instrumentation was left intact, would you play it at your little kid's birthday party?

...actually that would be awesome :)

..."difficulty" is completely subjective though. I could say "this sounds difficult", you could say "it doesn't". We would both be right.

This album is in need of a poll.

parts of this really don't click with me in terms of the melodies. sometimes they're beautifully moody but other times unnecessarily so. like it's trying too much to be disturbing or disturbed, or something.

but i love the beats/textures throughout. awesome.

yeah i dunno now i'm thinking this is generally kind of boring. ::ducks head::

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

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.

And starting with Group Four and Small = WE ARE FUCKING UNCOMPROMISING

I love it when an album starts off with such complete and immersive conviction. And tbh "Exchange" HAS to be the final track, it's the reflective not-quite comedown after the storm. That the storm is in this case "Threads" rather than the more maximalist "Group Four" gives this a more Portisheadian sense of reflection, more tragic, less violent.

Meantime, this is old but I finally saw it -- "We Carry On" on British TV:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nubzSvLCJQo

And I would call that rather stellar.

You know how some people just love the sound of a guitar and will listen to albums that are pretty mediocre because there's a good guitar tone and some cool soloing some times? I feel the same way about drum programming and these guys are so fucking good at it that I could listen to this all day long.

Those Jools clips are fucking astonishing.

I really like "Deep Water". It's very sweet, and the fiftiesish male background vox are a nice touch. So what if it (or any given song on the album, really) isn't SUPERINNOVATION. (stealing that word from Matt C.)

"Plastic", btw, has my second favorite drums on the album, after "Machine Gun".

http://www.waste-central.com/video/video/show?id=2026864:Video:227120

- Radiohead acoustic cover of "The Rip"

I heard them soundcheck that cover in Houston :) !

I did as well. :)
And in St. Louis!

The more times I listen to "The Rip," the more it reminds me of Paula Frazier and Tarnation with electronics. Which now makes me wish I had the capability to completely remix Gentle Creatures.

But that's beside the point. I never noticed such a western gothic quality to Beth Gibbons's voice before this song.

"The Rip" does absolutely nothing that Caribou's "Irene" doesn't do so, so, so much better IMO.

Honestly, Louis, you're being a bit of a twat on this thread. Third is excellent -- not a masterpiece -- but a way-far-above-average record, so why are you protesting too much and comparing every song to something that's (maybe, in your opinion) better on an individual basis, yet still doesn't address the entity we call an "album"? What I mean, in this instance, is that "The Rip" works as well if not better in context with the album on this occasion than "Irene" does in its own context (and I love "Irene"). I mean, this ain't no zero-sum game (as the geeks say).

wow this thread got awful while i was away

Thank God you're back!

sorry

Missed this party but calling bullshit on Louis's position on "Deep Water" as there is no better possible intro for "Machine Gun." Additionally, calling "Deep Water" a mood piece and not actually acknowledging the lyrics is a pretty epic bit of point-missing.

Try listening to other songs before "Machine Gun"! "No better possible intro" is absolutist bullshit in itself. My personal position is that the song is incredibly dull, in conception and execution, and I'm not wavering.

Fact is, the entire album is not as bleak as has been suggested on this thread and the major glimmer of hope is "Deep Water," which has this sort of keep your head up vibe that is almost humorous in light of some of the other sentiments expressed on Third. Yeah obviously I was making an absolutist statement but why wouldn't you sequence a track like that before what is probably the most brutal and uncompromising song on the album, lyrically and musically?

I listened to "Hunter" on an escalator this morning and had a weird I'm-in-a-movie moment. It reminded me of the slow-motion grocery store scene in Morvern Callar that's scored to "Some Velvet Morning."

"Magic Doors" may be my favorite song of the year.

The jump to a major key in the chorus is massive.

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

Gonna listen to this when I get home tonight.

Yeah, rly rly good. :D

http://e.motion.ru/ds/beth/

Listen to L'Annulaire. It's apparently Beth's music for some upcoming French film. Lovely stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRVRp7hKrLI

This is old, not very upcoming or new. But it's still very pretty.

"Machine Gun" makes me want to watch THX 1138

Several months later, "Small" is my favorite song on here.

If only I could see
Return myself to me
And recognize the poison
In my heart
There is no other place
No one else I'd face
The remedy to agree
With how I feel

"small" remark otm

in the spirit of reconciliation i would like to take back basically everything i said abt this record

'small' is still the best track tho, followed by 'threads'

hahaha I knew this would happen eventually

:)

god help us if there's a war

i had a sort of slow revelation. at first it was after 'silence' came on my ipod shuffle and i was all 'omg pause'. then i listened to it at home. several times. each time kinda letting the album play as well. you know how it goes.

let's just say i wd be comfortable with this record placing very highly indeed in the final ilx reckoning

Tried rewatching Doctor Who recently Louis?

am i gonna have to trawl through my back pages and recant everything

hahahahahaha (yes)

if only we could reverse suggest bans

new track and its slamming...

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=11755

i could stand to listen to a whole album of stuff like this, its moroder-neu meets portishead, lovely stuff..

Some jibber jabber about it here: Portishead

OMG, that track is just sick.

ya. love it. didn't really dig the last one.

Love the video as well. This may be my favourite kind of video, where men and women in a recording studio assume very concentrated expressions while doing some multitasking to assure us that they actually make every sound on the recording as we hear it. (If it sounds like I'm mocking, I truly am not, New Order's Perfect Kiss was the best I'd ever seen when I saw it 20 years ago.)

Listening to this for the first time since the end of 08.

It's a masterpiece, basically.

Totally right. I love this record.

Has any other band made an album springing up out of absolutely fucking nowhere after a 10+ year hiatus that was also better than any of their previous albums?

xpost Scott Walker

Flaming Lips didn't actually take a hiatus--but the impact of renewed artistic vigor for their 'Embryonic' is similarly unexpected. The two are my #1 albums for 2008/2009.

both great, both surprisingly slept on

This album has grown on me so much.

i'm always so unsure :-/

Heh, I'm actually listening to that specific song right now. :D

far and away one of the best records of 2008 -- look for their Jools Holland set on YouTube if you want to see some awesome live performances

the way the record ends is perfect too, imo

I still think this album is godhead.

I love how 'Machine Gun' takes a turn for the Tangerine Dream towards the end.

look for their Jools Holland set on YouTube if you want to see some awesome live performances

^^^^^^^^^^ YES ^^^^^^^^^^^

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNItz50u6OM

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

yeah those are all awesome, especially the first two

I've pretty much come full-circle on this album too - the only tracks I'm still dubious about are Plastic and Deep Water, the rest is fucking incredible

Plastic is only one that doesn't do it for me. Deep Water is more an idea than a proper track, but it's perfectly sequenced.

"Deep Water" makes perfect sense as an extended intro to "Machine Gun," otherwise it's kinda pointless. But boy does it work well in context!

ppl always ask me my opinion on this but, tbh, i'm aaaaaaallllwaaaayyyssss ssoooooooo uunnnnssuuuurreeee

(really though, i love it)

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

New Geoff Barrow joint I am very digging. Better than Beak> thing imo

im always so unsure :-/

I think it helps to have something (the voice) to hang all the contraptions on, esp. in this case something so monolithic and samey.

I mean the beak record was loaded with all these great accents but to me they seemed all sort of unmoored to anything. Anyway after two listens the album is pleasingly various...

Listened to this for the first time in about three years. Oh my, it is really, really good.

would kill for an entire album of canterbury sound doom-prog jams

you mean like Small, right (the best track) :D

we're halfway through another ten years, so...

I listened to this about a month ago, but the thread revive made me play it again tonight (while reading through all the posts).

I burned a copy in 2009 of Third with "Chase the Tear" as the last track after "Threads" for listening in my car, but I actually like to think of "Chase the Tear" as the first song from the next album...whenever that may come.