ALBUMR REVIEW: Portishead - Third
- Posted on April 21, 2008 3:51 PM
- 1 comment
Portishead
Third
Review by Zarina Raja
When a group like Portishead bring out a new album, you know that an obsession is definitely galloping towards you - and I wait for it with open arms.
Third begins with Silence, a track that eases you into Portishead’s newest release but doesn’t prepare you for what is hidden beneath the dark depths of Third. Silence is the song that builds up the anticipation and gets you drumming your fingers as you eagerly await what is yet to come.
Hunter gets the ball rolling, allowing us to glimpse some of the darkness that we previously saw in the single, Machine Gun. Nylon Smile tricks you into thinking that it is going to swell into a jarring electro track but it keeps its heartbeat-like bass thumping at a regular beat whilst Beth’s eerie voice groans over the song as she wails ‘I don’t know what I have done to deserve you.’
The fourth song, The Rip, glides in at top place on Third. A twangy guitar teases you into believing that Portishead have created a simple acoustic track…but far from it.
A couple of minutes into the song you suddenly realize that you are having an out of body experience. Well, not quite, but if there is any song that you would have one to, it would be The Rip. Beth ‘ohhhhhhs’ continuously over a fast-paced electronic beat that speeds up your heart and forces you to sink into the thick, engulfing music. It empties your mind of the dirt that it has collected over the years, swooping you off your feet and flying you away to an unknown place - flowery but true.
The rest of Third continues in the same way. Plastic, We carry On and Deep Water are enthralling and simply mesmerizing. Machine Gun shudders its way to my top second track on the album. It is one of the darkest, most infatuating and sinister songs that I have heard since early Kraftwerk.
At this point in the album, I am catatonic. Small and Magic Doors glide over me, further stifling my now frozen brain. Third ends with a light-hearted Pop melody. No, it doesn’t really, but I think that this is the only thing that can get me out of the Portishead induced state that I am in.
Thread wraps Third up nicely leaving me with a lingering desperation to play the album from the start to finish again.
Favourite lyric: ‘I’m just emotionally undone.’ Yep, that just about says it all really.
Related Links
Review of Machine Gun
Comments (1)
backstage passes
The weird thing about this album and more particularly songs such as "Machine Gun" is that even though I like them, it's quite an uncomfortable experience listening to them.
Posted on May 13, 2008 7:09 PM
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