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| Artist: Portishead
Label: Universal
Category: Music
List Price: £16.99
Buy New: £6.47
You Save: £10.52 (62%)
New (38) Used (5) from £6.25
Rating:  78 reviews
Sales Rank: 177
Media: Audio CD
Running Time: 49
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.4
UPC: 602517640139
EAN: 0602517640139
ASIN: B0014C2BL4
Release Date: April 28, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 A-Z or what Portishead have been listening to for 10 years June 9, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I will not waste time saying what has already been said. Buy this, buy it now. It is Portishead, it is dark, but there is something about the panic and emotion of it that which drives you forward, there are touches of 'Silver Apples', episodes of 'Radiohead', 'Music Emporium' or 'United States of America' even '24 track Loop' by 'This Heat'. Forget 'Deep Water' that is just to ground the sense of loss. What I really want to say is that Beth Gibbons sounds like the mother of an angel missing her angel daughter who has gone inter railing and she hasn't heard from her and wishes she would come back or contact her. The separation from mother and child is evocative of the hope and longing that lies in idealism that has been shattered by failure or let down. Humanity is about realisation, realisation that sometimes people let you down and you have to look to and rely on yourself in this you can find strength and optimism, as there is time for reflection as we are all flawed.
So it's not Dummy, but we have moved so far. We know they haven't produced much in their career, but you know that every single sound on this album right down to the mix and processing has been devised with the ultimate precision to sound exactly the way it sounds and anyone who saw them live would totally respond to this. This will be one of the great records of 2008. On the third listen you will get it, buy it now. Let it bring you to it.
Worth the effort it takes to listen to June 2, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
All the time away seems to have distilled Portishead's music into something true to the original and yet even more powerful than before. I am not sad that the scratching and sampling has gone - it worked on the other two albums, but to do it again after such a long break would have made it seem like an effort to recapture their glory days. They had to evolve, and they have, and the result is uncompromising and even in places uncomfortable to listen to...
...and yet that is what makes it great. Portishead don't seem to care if you like their music the first time - what they care about is that you come back to it a second time and "get it". Yes, it is as far from easy listening as trip-hop (if anyone still calls it that in 2008) can be, but just as Shakespeare is not easy on the eye yet is worth the effort (or so people tell you), Third is not easy on the ear and yet it will draw you in for repeated listenings.
Dark, disturbing, fractured stuff. And fantastic, with it. May 30, 2008
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Nothing prepares you for this album, and I think this may account for a lot of the negative reviews, here. It's a brilliant nightmare of an album, akin to being trapped in a haunted house with an old girlfriend who has been possessed by the tortured spirit of a torch singer who committed suicide. Every time this person speaks, this broken, pained, impassioned voice pours forth, and no matter which room you run to, there's always something uneasy and unsettling to drive you onward.
I have fond memories of the first Portishead, caught them live a couple of times, and liked the second album but this...this is a whole new beast. Think of one of those nightmares you have when you think you recognise an old friend in the street, run up behind them, reach out to turn them round...and whatever it is, it's terrifying, but you can't look away.
Give it a go. But be brave. It will haunt you, I swear.
Stately Progress Can Be Beautiful May 29, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a real progression from an innovative collective. Listeners looking for bands which consistently remake their moments of glory are directed towards the new Coldplay elpee. Those with a more adventurous palate will find what they desire right here.
Most printed reviews of this album made it sound rather intimidating. At the very least it was billed as a difficult listen.
But while there is tension and, occasionally, intentional dissonance, there is also space and variety of texture.
"Silence" sets up the whole album beautifully with a rather funky rumble of drums broken by a forlorn vocal. "The Rip" is a trip from the garden to the autobahn. And playing "Machine Gun" at a dinner party should ensure the regurgitation of the canapes.
 Regression towards the mean May 28, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
So you had the first albumn...produced
the second sounding like it was made before the first
and the third sounding like the demo's b4 the second made before the first.
have these guys actually done anything, or was their first albumn their last.
I guess you might think it was more them...
Okay maybe somethings are new...
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