Portishead

David Lynch took back his spooky, crackly beats and the band replaced them with a pile of electronics and rickety, minimalist percussion to craft this ultra-depressing ode to watching it all slip away. Listening to the long-awaited curveball that is Third is like watching rotten harbor debris, scavenger sea gulls, and massive tankers float by. “Nylon Smile” melds a repetitive hand drum with backwards guitar warbles as a bed for Beth Gibbons to deliver a helpless goodbye: “I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve you/And I don’t know what I’ll do without you.” It’s an empty, bewildered feeling that pervades the entire album. “The Rip” follows, twisting a wilting guitar into a chorus of soul-crushing synth tones oozing up from the buried scores of John Carpenter films. They’d sound like an ’80s after-school special if it weren’t for the drugged one-two beat and Gibbons’s near-death whispers. Anyone expecting a return to the slick cinemafunk of ’90s Portishead will be taken aback by Third, but though the album never reaches the eureka moments of old, it’s a welcome step into new territory and a more than satisfying downer dose to set against the onset of sunny days and ice cream.

Beth Gibbons

Cat Power

Zero 7

Radiohead

Sarah McLachlan

Serge Gainsbourg

Spiritualized

Mass MoCA

Various Artists

Video

Latest Articles

Spiritualized

Roxy, July 30, 2008
Like fellow studio-friendly trance band Portishead, Spiritualized know how to bring their aural soundscapes alive in real time and space.
By STEVEN LEE BEEBER | August 04, 2008

Fuming through the dog days

Five new albums to soundtrack a passive-aggressive summer
In preparation for another three months of endless days and sweaty nights, here are five new albums to get you through the summer.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | June 18, 2008

Journey to the surface of the Earth

Landscape anew at Mass MoCA, ‘Exposure’ at the PRC, Dana Clancy at the Danforth, and grouped figures at GASP
Looking at the landscape brings out the artist in everyone.
By RANDI HOPKINS | May 13, 2008

Portishead

Third | Island
It’s a welcome step into new territory and a more than satisfying downer dose to set against the onset of sunny days and ice cream.
By MATT PARISH | April 22, 2008

Dancing in the Dark

Cat Power at the Orpheum Theatre, February 7, 2008
If you’re a Cat Power devotee or even a casual fan, you’ve heard the horror stories about Chan Marshall’s live performances.
By MEGAN V. BELL | February 12, 2008

Natalie Walker

Urban Angel | Quango
It’s all soothing, but Walker’s never too sweet.
By KEN MICALLEF | January 14, 2008

Freedom songs

The sonic growth of the Mars Volta
The Mars Volta’s new Amputechture (Universal) is the first album the Los Angeles–based prog-punk ensemble have made that doesn’t have a unifying story line.
By MIKAEL WOOD | September 26, 2006

Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited

Various Artists| Verve Forecast
Mark up another score for the seductive spirit of Serge Gainsbourg.
By SIMON W. VOZICK-LEVINSON | August 01, 2006

On the Racks: May 30, 2006

Sophie Barker, Les Claypool, and Peeping Tom
Plus, Jamie Lidell and Herbert get in the mix.
By MATT ASHARE | May 31, 2006

Sarah Harmer

I'M A MOUNTAIN | Cold Snap/Zoë
A fetching Canadian songstress who'll appeal to No Depression readers and NPR listeners but doesn’t make a lasting impression beyond the confines of a suddenly crowded niche.
By MIKAEL WOOD | February 22, 2006

In Wynton's silhouette

Apple gets jazzed up
Wynton Marsalis’s iTunes exclusive Live Session — featured in Apple’s recent “Silhouettes” TV ad — is proof enough that jazz is as downloadable as any hip DJ mash-up.
By ADAM GOLD | February 21, 2006

Mozez

SO STILL | Apace
To the electronica-lite of Zero 7’s 2001 debut, Simple Things , Jamaican-born Mozez brought hot buttered soul and Marvin Gaye assurance, the former church singer wrenching real soul out of a pure digital frieze.
By KEN MICALLEF | January 23, 2006

Liverpool's latest

The overlooked brilliance of the Coral
Last year, though word barely reached the States, the Liverpool scene came back to life, with the Zutons, the Stands, and the Coral leading the resurgence.
By KEN MICALLEF | January 17, 2006

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