CD Review
Artist: Portishead
Title: Third
Label: Universal Music Canada
Released: April 29th 2008       

5 Stars    

Reviewed By: Todd Andre (Calgary Correspondent - Canada)  

Portishead has always been one of those bands that I wanted to listen to, but I never got around to buying - or even downloading - their album.  I first heard them in a retro clothing store nestled in Toronto's hippy riddled Kensington Market.  Their melodic brooding was the perfect soundtrack for a wet weekday afternoon of high priced discount shopping.  Unfortunately, the name didn't stick to my brain long enough to purchase an album, and the band member's 10 year disappearing act ensured that the memory would never return - until today.

Band members Adrian Utley, Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons finally crawled out of the musical black hole they have been hiding in since 1998's self-titled sophomore release. The band's first collective effort in ten years has produced Third - and it was worth the wait.  The danger of new records from old bands is that they often rehash the same sounds in a different order (see Black Sabbath and Ozzy).  These ‘comeback' albums often satiate hardcore fans of the band, but rarely attract critical acclaim or new fans.  Portishead has managed to capture the feeling of their 10 year creative black hole, and they have spun it into gold.      

Portishead has always been about capturing a feeling or mood than the right harmony or melody. Third is no exception to the rule.  Mangled synthesizer sounds loop and build into creepy melodies reminiscent of early ‘80s industrial.  Gibbons' vocals sound as if they have been sampled from the mouths of Stanley Kubrick's terrifying twins on The Shining (1980).  They have found new and innovative ways to express the uneasy dreariness of a rainy day that has marked their musical style since their debut record Dummy.  Dreary doesn't detract from the appeal of the album though, that's just what we have come to expect from a band that lists horror master John Carpenter as a musical influence. 

"[Carpenter] is a director primarily and a musician secondly, and there's a direct approach with him," explained Utley.  "He will not fuck about.  He's like ‘I need a boooommmpphh noise...That'll do!' That does the job.  And we're always trying to search for something that really succinctly does the job - not flowering out some kind of sound where you want to show off your synthesizer.  It's about this sound is doing what we want it to do."

If that little quote from Utley sounds a little abstract, it should.  The album is as abstract as Utley's descriptions, but that is part of Portishead's allure.  The sound "does what they want it to do," in that it has a use value for them and for the listener.  They try to take the listener on a trek through uncomfortable musical tones, in the same way the director of a horror film places his viewers in uncomfortable subjective viewing positions.  And as we all know, music is a huge part of being submerged in horror's universe.  Portishead replicates this level of ‘discomfort' in a much less hokey way than most horror films.  John Carpenter would be proud to call this album a creature of his own creation. 

Another way to look at it may be through interviewer Stephen Trousse's label of post-apocalyptic folk.  In an interview with the band, he suggests imagining the album as the soundtrack of post-apocalyptic British export Children of Men (2006), a film in which mankind is on the verge of extinction because we are unable to reproduce.  Like the film, the songs - as well as their bleak one word song titles - articulate an empty world both grotesque and beautiful.  We are mesmerized by apocalyptic visions of empty metropolises, overgrown country sides, and abandoned school yards, yet we fear their precipitation into reality.  Portishead gives us a glance at these visions at no cost to our immediate realities, and it is strangely therapeutic. 

There are no attempts to describe songs on this review, because Third is the type of album that is listened to all the way through.  It has a use value rather than an aesthetic, song-by-song listening experience.  Use the album in the same way you might use a post-apocalyptic horror: a solid hour of calming catharsis.  Don't be afraid, be curious and you will be rewarded with this dark gem.  Portishead is back, and this album will haunt our memories well into 2008.  

Tracklist
01 Silence
02 Hunter
03 Nylon Smile
04 The Rip
05 Plastic
06 We Carry On
07 Deep Water
08 Machine Gun
09 Small
10 Magic Doors
11 Threads