Geor!
05-02-2008, 08:59 AM
Holy shit. Talk about throwing me for a loop! Anybody else heard this thing yet? It's definitely... uhh... not what you might be expecting. It's good... really good, but it is definitely not the Portishead of old.
They said in an interview, last year, that they wanted to sound like Portishead without sounding like Portishead. They accomplish that here. The album, as a whole, has quite the empty feeling. There are very few elements left here of a trip hop band. As a matter of fact. The only thing that really resembles the Portishead of old are Beth Gibbons' haunting vocals. Let's face it: trip hop has been dead since... well, since the Portishead's second album. Portishead have always been originators, and this release sees them going way out on a limb. Maybe this is the future of this type of music. I'm just curious what their plans are after this. A tour would be nice. Future years of productivity would be even better.
Bottom line: If you go in expecting something akin to Dummy or Portishead, then you're going to be frustrated for a few spins. If you go in expecting something as far from those as possible, you'll be rewarded.
They said in an interview, last year, that they wanted to sound like Portishead without sounding like Portishead. They accomplish that here. The album, as a whole, has quite the empty feeling. There are very few elements left here of a trip hop band. As a matter of fact. The only thing that really resembles the Portishead of old are Beth Gibbons' haunting vocals. Let's face it: trip hop has been dead since... well, since the Portishead's second album. Portishead have always been originators, and this release sees them going way out on a limb. Maybe this is the future of this type of music. I'm just curious what their plans are after this. A tour would be nice. Future years of productivity would be even better.
Bottom line: If you go in expecting something akin to Dummy or Portishead, then you're going to be frustrated for a few spins. If you go in expecting something as far from those as possible, you'll be rewarded.