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| Artist: Portishead
Label: Universal / Island
Category: Music
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £4.98
You Save: £4.01 (45%)
New (24) Used (14) Collectible (3) from £2.59
Rating:  42 reviews
Sales Rank: 661
Media: Audio CD
Running Time: 45
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.4
UPC: 042282852229
EAN: 0042282852229
ASIN: B00004WL7O
Release Date: June 18, 1999
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 end of the evening sheer pleasure. April 21, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
put this on after you have got rid of all the losers or u have made it home from the pub.
it oooooozes class.
 Totally depressive, worthless noise. December 3, 2007
4 out of 38 found this review helpful
I bought this recently and will never play it again. totally unmusical and the lead singers vocals are well over rated. i can think of many far better singers. nothing on this album is original.
i cant see how this album became so well rated on amazon.
Alien Heart September 22, 2006
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
This band came from the same Bristol incubator as Massive Attack and Tricky, and there is the same dreamy Trip-Hoppy character here. Where they part company is the cold steely atmosphere Portishead muster.
Beth Gibbons voice is the thing that defines the sound. Simultaneously bruised, almost wretched, yet super-cool, her delivery is jazz tinged and brings out complex emotions. This debut album is a remakably strong collection of tunes with few weak links.
The music is creatively quirky, utilising Hip Hop, Jazz, atmospheric pads, hypnotic breaks, angular beats and disjointed guitar. This is alien, but not alienating stuff, and it still sounds real cool and cutting edge now, withstanding endless repeat listens. File under Inspired Alien Trip Hop.
A genre defining classic March 15, 2006
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
This beautifully haunting record is one of those indispensables that any serious music fan has in their collection. I remember being completely blown away by the originality the first time I heard it. The punchy, nuerotic beats and the cold distant voice of Beth Gibbons. I guess if you could refer to trip-hop as a genre, this has to be it´s signature album.
"Mysterons," sounds like a martian landing, Gibbon´s distinctive voice unfurls the track with a steely brittleness. This music sounds purposefully distant and edgy. I like the curling beat on the second track,"Sour times." My personal favourite has to be the intro to the pulsating beat on,"strangers."
"It´s a fire," is the only track that sounds slightly out of place. It is the only track on the album that sounds like something you may have heard before.
The ranging,"Roads," is another extremely inventive track that preludes the classic,"glory box." Gibbons sounds like a battered, wounded woman on this song. Her lyrical approach is totally unique.
What more can I say about this? It´s engaging, strangely distant but at the same time thoroughly seductive. A must buy.
Gob-smackingly good February 24, 2006
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
I don't know much about Portishead but I fell in love with their style when I first head 'Glory Box' what must now be many years ago (gulp). It was the combination of achingly sexy vocals, the slow throbbing guitars and classical style instrumentation plus some of the most powerful lyrics I've ever heard such as 'give me a reason to love you, give me a reason to be a woman'. Pure musical viagra... I was itching to buy the album and I was not disappointed, in fact I was astounded... 'Glory Box' was just a sublime introduction to this sound. 'Mysterons' has a genuinely other-worldly vibe - and though it has been stolen to introduce many a science fiction season on Sky it still has the ability to tug at you when those spare vocals take hold. On top of that is the incredible 'Sour Times'. I don't know how else to describe the shimmering bell sounds that introduce it but the song itself starts off like a slightly odd Bond Theme. Then those vocals again. Plaintive and erotic this song is just about as sexually charged as it gets. The other tracks all have merits: 'Strangers' is slightly heavier with its trip-hop beat and sparse jazz-like quality. 'It's A Fire' a surprise again with the inclusion of some great gospel-style keyboards, 'Numb' has a great line 'Cos I'm still feeling lonely, feeling so unholy'. The others are a little 'samey' in style but to be honest you feel so drugged up by the album by then that it doesn't detract at all. This album has a style reminiscent of later bands like Goldfrapp, Zero 7 and Morcheeba who have taken this smokey torch singer music and perhaps taken it to the next level but this is the original and best. It deserves 5 stars just for being so damned sexy...
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