speed of dark

By the time Indie Mom and I see Portishead, the British trio of Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons, and Adrian Utley, at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival at the end of April, their third album will still be a couple of days from release in the U.S. I didn't want to wait; I wanted to be familiar with the songs before then, so I managed to get hold of the album and listen to it while I was on vacation.

I loved 1994's Dummy, and I can remember exactly where I first listened to it: at the listening center of the music store where Indie Mom worked when she was in high school. At the time I had never heard anything remotely like it. There is still not much music as widely known that resembles Portishead's combination of trip-hoppy rhythms, bottomless melancholy, and quirky space explorations.

I never really found anything on their second album, 1997's Portishead, that pulled me in the same way that "Mysterons," "Wandering Star," and "Sour Times" did. However, Third, at least for me, is at long last the appropriate follow-up to Dummy. The more I listen to it, the more I find similarities and the more I enjoy the differences. As with Dummy, there are some songs that particularly stand out from the others.

The first song, "Silence," (dubbed "Wicca" in live recordings) begins with a male voice reciting a couplet in Portuguese that is a version of the Wiccan Rule of Three (see Wikipedia) before chugging instrumentally for about two minutes to arrive at Beth's vocals.

Translation:
"Ever mind the Rule of Three,
Three times what thou givest returns to thee,
This lesson well, thou must learn,
Thee* only gets what thou dost earn."

I don't know what Portishead's connection with Wicca or Portuguese is, but the association with the number three is clear: three band members, third album.

The fifth track, "Plastic," seems the most like the songs on Dummy, especially reminding me of "Mysterons." Familiar trademarks throughout the album are Beth Gibbons' quavery, grief-scoured voice, dirge-like melodies, unexpected skittery blips, and stumbling, shuffly beats.

The other songs contain some surprises, like a latin beat on "Nylon Smile," acoustic ukelele--disturbingly accompanied by a robot chorus--on "Deep Water," tribal jungle beats on "Hunter" and "We Carry On," and Beth holding notes for an impossibly long time on the lovely "The Rip." Sporadic rapid-fire percussion blasts holes through "Machine Gun".

The last track, the dramatic, slow-paced "Threads," pits Beth's wails against what sounds like an entire chain gang, and instead of weakly collapsing under the weight, her voice wavers but stands up to the assault. The song finally disappears into a droning foghorn-like sound. "Magic Doors" may be the most starkly beautiful song the group has ever produced, although "The Rip," with its rippling undercurrents, would be a close second.

The verdict? I have read some negative reviews, but I disagree with them. Third has far more beauty mixed into the weirdness than Portishead did and strongly challenges Dummy for intrigue if not novelty. I'm not crazy about "Small" or "Deep Water," but the more I listen to the others, the more I suspect they will be getting under my skin as deeply as "Sour Times," "Mysterons," and "Wandering Star." Portishead is not for everyone, but in my opinion, those who, like me, fell under the spell of Dummy should enjoy Third.

We Carry On from Third (performed live as "Peaches")
Wandering Star from Dummy

Portishead will headline the Coachella on Saturday, April 26.

MySpace | Website | Label: Island Records
Pre-order at Portishead Shop, Amazon.com

* As a former English major, I disagree with the use of "thee" in the construction of this sentence. Many languages have second-person familiar verb conjugations and pronouns (German: "du", Spanish, "tu"). "Thou" and "thee" are the second-person familiar pronouns in English, although they have been dropped from common usage and are poorly understood by a large number of American English-speakers. "Thou" and "thee" have the same relationship to each other as "he" and "him." "Thou" is the subjective form that should have been used above because "thee" is the objective pronoun. (reference)