Despite coming onto the music scene 14 years ago, Portishead is just now releasing its third album, aptly titled Third. Finally, reuniting after ten years apart, the group has had the benefit, not only of life experience, but of three separate ones and there is a clear sense of this album being the fusion of several different visions. The result is quite a sonic journey. The first track “Silence” strays far from its title, instead beginning as a wall of sound before slowly forming into a song that manages to be both plaintive and ominous, thanks to a combination of mournful vocals and pounding drums. This effect continues even more distinctly with “Hunter” where the drums become downright menacing and yet the rest of the song is delicately eerie. This is perhaps where the band shows its greatest strength on this album. Even when expressing the most common of sentiments Portishead comes off as almost ethereal. Listen to “Nylon Smile” and you will hear the ballad of movingly haunted woman, although the lyrics say little more than “I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve you.” Yet not all is doom and gloom here. There are two tracks that are downright folksy. One of them, “Deep Water,” could even be called optimistic. These songs, along with the epic “We Carry On,” the fearsome “Machine Gun,” and the chilling “Threads” provide a measure of variety throughout the album that prevents it from falling into a simple pattern of sad vocals/creepy music. Overall, Third is a triumph of a comeback and a truly original creation from a band that made its name by breaking new ground.
- Helen Horn-Mitchem
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