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Long-awaited album 'Third' departs from sound of mid-'90s
By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal music writer
Published on Sunday, May 11, 2008
When a popular band takes a decade off between albums, among the common fears of fans when it does come back is the band will either work to sound the same, or strain to contemporize its sound, completely losing whatever attributes made fans care for so long.
There were other groups in the mid-'90s — such as Massive Attack, Tricky and Monk & Canatella — that were mixing hip-hop and electronic grooves with vocals, but for most mainstream listeners, U.K. trio Portishead's 1994 debut Dummy defined the trip-hop genre.
Geoff Barrow's hip-hop beats, samples and scratches, Adrian Utley's understated twangy noir-influenced guitar and Beth Gibbons' ''sad singer at the manic-depressive cabaret'' vocal style were a surprise hit and engendered many knockoffs and wannabes. Their self-titled second album refined their sound, and their live 1998 album PNYC added a sense of grandeur to their insular songs with the help of a full orchestra.
Now, 10 years removed from their last album of new material, Portishead has returned, pulling off the difficult trick of creating an album that is a departure from its familiar sound while still sounding unmistakably like Portishead.
Gibbons is the glue, as her vibrato-laden soprano still quivers and shakes with the weight of her own fears and helplessness, and her outlook and melodies don't seem to have gotten any sunnier.
Musically, the trio has turned the familiar Portishead sound on its ear. Gone are the noir-ish strings, scratches, samples and most traces of hip-hop; in their place are throbbing vintage synthesizers, rough and rugged syncopated rhythms, new variations in tempo and a newfound love of dissonance.
The band obviously wanted to state the ''new'' direction clearly by releasing the album's most abrasive track, the aptly titled Machine Gun, as the lead single, with its industrial-influenced stuttering groove and John Carpenteresque synth lines. Even if fans managed to miss the single, the album opener Silence rolls along on an up-tempo groove that is faster than anything in the band's small oeuvre.
On The Rip, Gibbons softly moans over an ambient bed of gently picked acoustic guitar, before a snaking arpeggiated synth line and another up-tempo groove kick in. Deep Water comes closest to displaying some humor, with Utley strumming a ukulele and a mutated barbershop quartet doing backing vocals.
The band does dip back into more familiar sonic territory, but tracks such as the crawling Hunter, the quietly funky drums and melodrama in Plastic and the almost funky beat of Magic Doors still incorporate the new squiggly synths, textures and other oddities that recall pioneering electronic drone-heavy bands such as Suicide.
Third probably will divide much of the Portishead faithful. Many hoping for a continuation of the Dummy/Portishead II sound will probably be disappointed by all the weirdness and rough edges in the band's new tunes, while others will appreciate the band's forward motion.
There's nothing on Third that will immediately grab listeners the way Sour Times did back in '94. The songs work best in the context of the album and together they are moody, filled with a dark, icy dread and a tension that was offset early on by the beats and scratches. But if fans can let go of preconceived ideas that have had a decade to solidify in their minds, they should find that after a few listens, the charms of Third may not be immediate but have been worth the wait.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
When a popular band takes a decade off between albums, among the common fears of fans when it does come back is the band will either work to sound the same, or strain to contemporize its sound, completely losing whatever attributes made fans care for so long.
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