A brief statement… I think the Potishead’s Third is the best album of the decade. The intelligence and cleverness in the album’s recording, the brilliant variety in song and the way each track hits the listener like a shot in the arm is utterly lovely. Beth Gibson’s vocals, the allowance for crackles, bits of distortion and luscious simplicity showcases this groups confidence and command of their medium. I am hard pressed to pick one or even just a couple songs from this album as being the best among the whole -as the penultimate expression of Portishead’s abilities- as each song seems to come from it’s own space. I will not attempt to ascribe politics to the groups return to the studio. I will liken it to description of dumplings a friend recently had in northern China. He described the dumplings as looking more like tacquitos than the dumplings you’re used to seeing. Dough that was not fully crimped the pork stuffing, holding its form and integrity but, poking out on one end. The shape was not the uniform perfection but more like chubby arthritic fingers. Why was such questionable presentation not a concern? Because they were the best ****ing dumplings on the surface of the planet! That is a perfect analogy for describing Portishead’s Third. The group’s abilities transcend nit-picking and obsessive layering and pushing the dynamic landscape for WOW factor. They know their game and they play with the brutish subtly of the best of club football. Each track drives with impunity but holds back in the most delightful ways. Ways that tug at the listener’s ear, brain and gut. Certain percussive strikes sound as though oily pig skin or dampened paper towels have been placed on the drumhead and the effect seems to conjure the image of the drumstick hitting your eardrum with heart-aching accuracy.
This mention comes quite sometime after the albums release and that’s because I don’t listen to it all that often and that’s because this album demands a certain level of attention and listening environment. Best played over speakers at volumes that bring the performance’s forcefulness into your space it isn’t every day that I am able to give the album the space it deserves and demands. But when I do it is the penultimate expression of what the trip-hop scene was in the 90s and what music can be in this decade soon to close. The guys of animal collective have put out something special in Merriweather Post Pavilion, but, their frenetic almost psychosis-inducing layering and obsession with crystalline highs have a few things to learn from the effortless beauty of Third and the spaces it creates. I see the collective putting out an album, two or three down the road, that begins to approach Portishead’s ability but I don’t hear anyone rivaling this effort at this moment.
This mention comes quite sometime after the albums release and that’s because I don’t listen to it all that often and that’s because this album demands a certain level of attention and listening environment. Best played over speakers at volumes that bring the performance’s forcefulness into your space it isn’t every day that I am able to give the album the space it deserves and demands. But when I do it is the penultimate expression of what the trip-hop scene was in the 90s and what music can be in this decade soon to close. The guys of animal collective have put out something special in Merriweather Post Pavilion, but, their frenetic almost psychosis-inducing layering and obsession with crystalline highs have a few things to learn from the effortless beauty of Third and the spaces it creates. I see the collective putting out an album, two or three down the road, that begins to approach Portishead’s ability but I don’t hear anyone rivaling this effort at this moment.
