I'm liking it. They've matured well, which is a really hard thing for a band to do. It doesn't have the broad appeal, or dare I say 'hits', of their previous albums but I think, if they'd just come back with a rehash of thier old sound, it wouldn't have had half the vitality, that this lp has.
You can hear bits of the The Jimi Entley Sound, influence in this lp.
billbradleyYou want BBQ sauce? Get the fuck out of my house. 2,914 Posts
I need to listen to the whole album again. I liked how it started then found myself skipping through it as I wasn't really liking what I was hearing as the CD went on. The production seemed pretty boring to me while the vocals seemed to carry most of the weight. Maybe it will grow on me but my first impression wasn't all that great.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
I'd heard from various journalist friends that it was "unlistenable" or that it sounded "as if they'd lost their nerve and were scared to make a record people might actually like", so I was expecting it to be a pretty grim listen.
I'm surprised by your friend's comments as well as, if they cast their mind back, I don't think Dummy was originally seen as a commercial sound when they released it - although Massive Attack had laid the groundwork the whole trip-hop sound only really took off chart wise in the wake of songs like Glory Box...
I think my boys may have had in mind some of Geoff Barrow's comments in a few recent interviews, wherein he seemed a bit disdainful of the way "Dummy" was embraced by what he called "the dinner parties and fondue crowd". I have a very clear memory of being in the old Tower Records store in Piccadilly Circus one afternoon in the early 90s and overhearing a tall, Chanel-clad blonde with a cut-glass Bayswater accent asking one of the staff if they had the Portishead album in stock. Back then, I couldn't have imagined someone less likely to be part of Portishead's audience. Barrow doesn't seem to have been terribly impressed with the way their music kept turning up in TV shows either, although I imagine the money generated by those kinds of uses would be a handy (as well as lucrative) buffer against the harsher realities of the world if, for example, you were to spend something like ten years making your third album. I had visions of them saying to themselves, "Let's see them try and use this in some shitty drama about trainee lawyers jumping in and out of bed with one another..."
Either way, it seems clear that they've consciously gone out of their way to make a record that won't end up as background music, but, like that posh Chanel girl, you can never tell how people are going to respond to your music. "The Rip" in particular has precisely the kind of tender, fragile quality that music supes often look for when they need to soundtrack a moment of Great Emotional Significance in some overwrought teen drama, even if the song itself is dripping with the sort of analog spookiness you'd more readily associate with a low-budget 70s horror flick.
I have a very clear memory of being in the old Tower Records store in Piccadilly Circus one afternoon in the early 90s and overhearing a tall, Chanel-clad blonde with a cut-glass Bayswater accent asking one of the staff if they had the Portishead album in stock.
that would have been an instant boner moment for me. I would have ended up touching myself behind the records bins
I'd heard from various journalist friends that it was "unlistenable" or that it sounded "as if they'd lost their nerve and were scared to make a record people might actually like", so I was expecting it to be a pretty grim listen.
I'm surprised by your friend's comments as well as, if they cast their mind back, I don't think Dummy was originally seen as a commercial sound when they released it - although Massive Attack had laid the groundwork the whole trip-hop sound only really took off chart wise in the wake of songs like Glory Box...
I think my boys may have had in mind some of Geoff Barrow's comments in a few recent interviews, wherein he seemed a bit disdainful of the way "Dummy" was embraced by what he called "the dinner parties and fondue crowd". I have a very clear memory of being in the old Tower Records store in Piccadilly Circus one afternoon in the early 90s and overhearing a tall, Chanel-clad blonde with a cut-glass Bayswater accent asking one of the staff if they had the Portishead album in stock. Back then, I couldn't have imagined someone less likely to be part of Portishead's audience. Barrow doesn't seem to have been terribly impressed with the way their music kept turning up in TV shows either, although I imagine the money generated by those kinds of uses would be a handy (as well as lucrative) buffer against the harsher realities of the world if, for example, you were to spend something like ten years making your third album. I had visions of them saying to themselves, "Let's see them try and use this in some shitty drama about trainee lawyers jumping in and out of bed with one another..."
Either way, it seems clear that they've consciously gone out of their way to make a record that won't end up as background music, but, like that posh Chanel girl, you can never tell how people are going to respond to your music. "The Rip" in particular has precisely the kind of tender, fragile quality that music supes often look for when they need to soundtrack a moment of Great Emotional Significance in some overwrought teen drama, even if the song itself is dripping with the sort of analog spookiness you'd more readily associate with a low-budget 70s horror flick.
Yeah, spot on Doc, have to cosign all of the above really. When an album like Mezzanine, where Massive Attack might as well have put "Not for dinner party/background music consumption" on the front cover, becomes one of the most used albums in recent memory for trailers and tv programs I don't think it's a big leap to see something similar happening to many of the tracks here.
Whether this will reflect in sales to the general public will remain to be seen I guess.
I could easily see a couple of the songs being used in TV shows for precisely the reason that they don't sound like typical background music. But I agree that you won't be hearing this in the background at your local hipster Thai restaurant, which I am very thankful for.
I'm liking it. They've matured well, which is a really hard thing for a band to do. It doesn't have the broad appeal, or dare I say 'hits', of their previous albums but I think, if they'd just come back with a rehash of thier old sound, it wouldn't have had half the vitality, that this lp has.
You can hear bits of the The Jimi Entley Sound, influence in this lp.
Good call Moke. I was not familiar with the artist, but I definitely recognize the sample--though I can't place it.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
I'm liking it. They've matured well, which is a really hard thing for a band to do. It doesn't have the broad appeal, or dare I say 'hits', of their previous albums but I think, if they'd just come back with a rehash of thier old sound, it wouldn't have had half the vitality, that this lp has.
You can hear bits of the The Jimi Entley Sound, influence in this lp.
Good call Moke. I was not familiar with the artist, but I definitely recognize the sample--though I can't place it.
since this is the closest thing to a trip hop thread on strut... tricky had a good quote when trip hop hit it big, along the lines of "trip hop is what college kids admit to liking when they dont want to call it hip hop." out of that genre, maxinquae and mezzanine and dummy are bliss. i still dont get how tricky and portishead happened to have the same sample at the same time. i even liked a couple of tricky's stuff after maxinquae when he got over his head:
^baaaaaaadassssssss
oh yeah and martina bird was precious as hell, still have a love affair with her
OK, bumping this for a quick live report from the show this friday. Strutter McDoom and Vinylvulture LeftHandCorner + girlfriends were in attendance too.
In one word: perfect.
Good sound. Intense performance Gibbons killing it on vox. Sounds strong as ever. Geezer-looking Uncle Utley killing it with the twang/tremolo/distorto/fuzz shred. Barrows killing it on midi perc/sample triggering + scratch. Drummer, bassist and keyboard player killing it too.
I loved it. I was especially moved by Beth Gibbons' performance. There was a sense of urgency. Portishead '08 sounded hungry to me. No comfy lets-rest-on-our-laurels vibe.
Anyone who's on the fence about shelling out for tickets to the remaining UK and continental dates: don't hesitate, it's worth it.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
Since I don't have any Portishead albums at all, obviously heard the well known tracks, is this a good place to start or should I start at the beginning?
I have been loving this record for two weeks now. Downloaded it at first, then picked up the basic 2LP today from the store. Shit was warped! However, it did come with a free digital download, in .wmv format. If anyone would like the download code, shoot me a message and I'll give it to you. I have no use.
I was seriously skeptical before I listened. I don't really put on the first two Portishead records anymore, but I still hold them in high regard. I could have never fathomed a record by them that would be a perfect bookend to the first two and, yet, 10 years later sound new and interesting.
Picked this up today - looked through all the copies they had and picked out the flatest, but of course record 2 is warped anyway. I hope I don't have to return 4 copies to finally get an unwarped one, as I have had to do with a few cheaply pressed modern LP's.
Anyway, I guess I'm feeling it although the new sound is not really so much my bag. I typically like harsh material like this, but Portishead are supposed to be my chillout music, and this album is giving me an anxiety attack
Comments
You can hear bits of the The Jimi Entley Sound, influence in this lp.
I think my boys may have had in mind some of Geoff Barrow's comments in a few recent interviews, wherein he seemed a bit disdainful of the way "Dummy" was embraced by what he called "the dinner parties and fondue crowd". I have a very clear memory of being in the old Tower Records store in Piccadilly Circus one afternoon in the early 90s and overhearing a tall, Chanel-clad blonde with a cut-glass Bayswater accent asking one of the staff if they had the Portishead album in stock. Back then, I couldn't have imagined someone less likely to be part of Portishead's audience. Barrow doesn't seem to have been terribly impressed with the way their music kept turning up in TV shows either, although I imagine the money generated by those kinds of uses would be a handy (as well as lucrative) buffer against the harsher realities of the world if, for example, you were to spend something like ten years making your third album. I had visions of them saying to themselves, "Let's see them try and use this in some shitty drama about trainee lawyers jumping in and out of bed with one another..."
Either way, it seems clear that they've consciously gone out of their way to make a record that won't end up as background music, but, like that posh Chanel girl, you can never tell how people are going to respond to your music. "The Rip" in particular has precisely the kind of tender, fragile quality that music supes often look for when they need to soundtrack a moment of Great Emotional Significance in some overwrought teen drama, even if the song itself is dripping with the sort of analog spookiness you'd more readily associate with a low-budget 70s horror flick.
that would have been an instant boner moment for me. I would have ended up touching myself behind the records bins
Yeah, spot on Doc, have to cosign all of the above really. When an album like Mezzanine, where Massive Attack might as well have put "Not for dinner party/background music consumption" on the front cover, becomes one of the most used albums in recent memory for trailers and tv programs I don't think it's a big leap to see something similar happening to many of the tracks here.
Whether this will reflect in sales to the general public will remain to be seen I guess.
Good call Moke. I was not familiar with the artist, but I definitely recognize the sample--though I can't place it.
tricky had a good quote when trip hop hit it big, along the lines of "trip hop is what college kids admit to liking when they dont want to call it hip hop." out of that genre, maxinquae and mezzanine and dummy are bliss. i still dont get how tricky and portishead happened to have the same sample at the same time. i even liked a couple of tricky's stuff after maxinquae when he got over his head:
^baaaaaaadassssssss
oh yeah and martina bird was precious as hell, still have a love affair with her
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6175vubQ-4E
^i believe this was a collab with dj muggs. love it
Thanks.
I have to really take it all in to get a full idea , that one line review is based on skimming through the tracks.
Strutter McDoom and Vinylvulture LeftHandCorner + girlfriends were in attendance too.
In one word: perfect.
Good sound.
Intense performance
Gibbons killing it on vox. Sounds strong as ever.
Geezer-looking Uncle Utley killing it with the twang/tremolo/distorto/fuzz shred.
Barrows killing it on midi perc/sample triggering + scratch.
Drummer, bassist and keyboard player killing it too.
I loved it. I was especially moved by Beth Gibbons' performance. There was a sense of urgency.
Portishead '08 sounded hungry to me. No comfy lets-rest-on-our-laurels vibe.
Anyone who's on the fence about shelling out for tickets to the remaining UK and continental dates: don't hesitate, it's worth it.
I was there
Thanks for posting this. It was
The missus got the official CD in the mail Saturday. Been listening to it today for the first time (loud!).
Excellent. Album of the year contender for sure.
I can get behind that.
But buy all three at the same time.
Definite contender for album of the year.
I was seriously skeptical before I listened. I don't really put on the first two Portishead records anymore, but I still hold them in high regard. I could have never fathomed a record by them that would be a perfect bookend to the first two and, yet, 10 years later sound new and interesting.
they had and picked out the flatest, but of course record
2 is warped anyway. I hope I don't have to return 4 copies
to finally get an unwarped one, as I have had to do with a
few cheaply pressed modern LP's.
Anyway, I guess I'm feeling it although the new sound is not
really so much my bag. I typically like harsh material like this,
but Portishead are supposed to be my chillout music, and this album
is giving me an anxiety attack