1. Silence
2. Hunter
3. Nylon Smile
4. The Rip
5. Plastic
6. We Carry On
7. Deep Water
8. Machine Gun
9. Small
10. Magic Doors
11. Threads
Amazon.co.uk
Portishead's Third has been a long time coming, the result of a lengthy creative torpor following 1997's dark, distinctly underrated album Portishead. Importantly, though, they've shaken it. While the core trio of Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow, and Adrian Utley remains, this is quite a different band to Portishead's 90s incarnation: gone is the slo-mo turntable scratching and smoky jazz feel, replaced by heavy, brooding rhythms, vintage-sounding electronics, and spindly guitar. Still present, though, is that sense of emotional fracture and deep gloom. "Silence" opens with a dense drum loop which suddenly falls away to reveal Gibbons' voice, cold but magnificent: "Wounded and afraid, inside my head/Falling through changes". "Nylon Smile", meanwhile, is a fine example of Third's occasional folksy edge, an acoustic song reminiscent of Leonard Cohen that, around its midpoint, lifts off on a propulsive electronic rhythm, Gibbons holding one clear, hard note as synthesisers bubble beneath. At times, it's a harsh and foreboding listen: the electronic drums of "Machine Gun" might put off the listener hoping for smooth dinner party fare. But Third is a brave and forward-thinking return, and one great enough to justify its lengthy gestation. --Louis Pattison
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Third
- Audio CD: 0 pages (2008-04-29)
- Publisher: Mercury
- Label: Mercury
- Studio: Mercury
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 137 reviews
- Sales Rank in Music: #42
Avg. Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A Sonic Journey 2008-07-05
Comment: I am loving Third SO much! I'm so glad I decided to give it a chance even though I wasn't convinced by some of the 30 second snippets. There is one track that I'm not crazy about, but the rest are wonderfully crafted, beautiful and yet surprising to the ear in so many ways. I listened to Third for the first time at the gym, all the way through, and wasn't totally in love from the first listen, as there was a lot to absorb and take in. Even so, I was too intrigued to want to fast forward through any of the tunes. By the second listen, I was hooked. I felt like I had experienced something that touched my emotions while stimulating my rational mind as well. If you like music that is (at least somewhat) experimental yet beautiful, and not afraid to tread paths not considered stereotypically beautiful, give this a try! If you are the type of person who can sit and listen to an album all the way through uninterrupted and enjoy the twists and bends, highs and lows in the music, then you will love this album. In other words, can you sit back and meditate and let something new come to you and just experience it without judging it, letting its brilliance occur to you slowly and over time? If not, and if you'd rather be able to have your music fit into a pre-set mold of your own conception that fits with your past experience of music you've loved, then you may not like this. Seriously, beautiful work! Well done, Portishead!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: THIRD, FOURTH, they can go till 100 !!!! 2008-07-01
Comment: What a masterpiece, great voice and beats...Protishead deserve a great medal for been the pionner of this paradox music...
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: It is hard to comprehend where their heads were at ? This is not the Band I Once knew..... 2008-06-27
Comment: I am a little lost on this one ? I have absolutely no idea what they where thinking or doing ? I have been a fan of this band since 1994's masterpiece "Dummy" and even liked "Portishead's (2nd). For years I couldn't understand for the life of me why they never returned? Well, it is pretty self explanatory they had nothing left in them to give. When I heard that this was finally the year the actual release was coming.. I was excited. For years there had been many groups that duplicated their sound or right out claimed to be Portishead. I listened to this album three times and never went back which isn't a good sign. This sounds not to far off from the Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man project ! So what was the need in having the group you can barely tell their present !
There were so many fake albums on the net and so many groups that copied or remixed old songs. Well, you would think that Geoff would sit back and say ..we have to make a impact? Well we were all wrong horribly wrong in fact it had the opposite effect ! This album sounds very spare and it lacks alot of production quality. The songs are spare and they sound unfinished and only replications of previous work. Nothing new nothing fresh nothing innovative. "Nylon Smile" is possibly the only track on here that really stands out. If you want a good album that was inspired by this band. And sounds like this one should have sounded and has amazing vocals ? Go and pick up a group named "Sissy" the album is entitled "All Under". Even pick up a friend of mine named "Costanza" Sonic Diary. You will not be disappointed this is what Trip Hop is all about (creativeness). Portishead I think paved the way for a fine genre but if this is the most they can give. They will soon be nothing more than a novelty act or completely irrelevant. Someone couldn't have said it better: If this wasn't Portishead this album would have been overlooked.
Arish
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Portishead 2008-06-24
Comment: A very "Portishead" CD, yet still innovative. Rather dark with an underlying 60's B-movie feel to it.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great return and atypical in many ways 2008-06-23
Comment: In many ways "Third" doesn't sound anything like previous Portishead stuff: it lacks strong trip hop tones/themes, some songs veer on experimental instrumentation, and the music is lyrically quite bleak (I know this could be said of their other stuff, but at least in the past there was some lightness to it). This isn't the type of album that's an easy listen, nor one that has standout tracks per say but rather, it is an album to be enjoyed in its entirety. More rock and electro-clash than anything, the album boasts some complex arrangements but suffers because of Gibbons. A strong vocalist in her own way, in other Portishead work she was the glue keeping the tracks together; here, you could almost not hear her voice, she's so overwhelmed by the instumentation going on with her. (A strong argument could be made that you could take her out entirely and still have the same songs.)
Not sure it shows the progress of 10 years, but "Third" is a great if challanging listen.
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