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| Third | 
 enlarge | Artist: Portishead
Label: Universal
Category: Music
List Price: £11.99
Buy Used: £7.46
You Save: £4.53 (38%)
New (34) from £7.48
Avg. Customer Rating:  47 reviews
Sales Rank: 2
Media: Audio CD
Running Time: 49 minutes
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.4
UPC: 602517640139
EAN: 0602517640139
ASIN: B0014C2BL4
Release Date: April 28, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Present, only listened to once, didn't like. Slight crack on front of case
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| Tracks:
| • | Silence | | • | Hunter | | • | Nylon Smile | | • | The Rip | | • | Plastic | | • | We Carry On | | • | Deep Water | | • | Machine Gun | | • | Small | | • | Magic Doors | | • | Threads |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Portishead's Third has been a long time coming, the result of a lengthy creative topor 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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| Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...
 THURD May 16, 2008
This record is rubbish.I was more dissapointed with this record then i was with mogwais last album mr beast(another over hyped album by a once great band).
After seeing all the five star reviews in the press i thought this record was going to be an absolute classic.Its not.The music is just cold and brittle.My advice is buy Beth gibbons solo record "out of season" instead .A thousand times better then this pap.
Anti climax. May 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Quite simply self indulgent plop. Dissapointing after the long wait. Perhaps it would have been better to retire.
 Portishead - Third May 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'll start this review with a) a confession and b) a confession.
a) I have never heard Portishead's self-titled second album. I'll rectify this sometime soon.
b) I'm somewhat wary about writing my first online music review and giving the subject the maximum score available. But, my god, this record deserves it.
This is something that I've been contemplating for a while now. What makes an album great? Does every track have to be excellent? Or does it simply have to take you on a great journey? Or must it do both?
The signs point to the third answer. And the third answer is fitting of Third.
I can only imagine how long the 11 years since their last studio album have seemed to the Portishead faithful. Mostly because in 1997 I hadn't even discovered Blur yet. But it's most certainly been worth it.
Perhaps the most important thing to write here is this: Third WILL split opinions. And it has. But all it takes to love it is time. And a willingness to be uncomfortable.
To say that the record is bleak is to do it a disservice. I'd much rather call it pessimistic. This is Portishead on the march to an uncertain destination (personified by We Carry On). Indeed, the overall message of the album is unclear. It seems to have songs dealing with all the standard issues music can deal with. Paranoia (Hunter), love (Nylon Smile), death (The Rip), it's all here and it's all beautiful.
My first experience with this work was Portishead's recent appearance on Later with Jools Holland. Ever since that show, the drumbeat of Machine Gun has been firmly burnt into my brain, like the Arctic Monkeys' Fake Tales of San Francisco before it. On repeated listens, I'm starting to hear connections with Europe's The Final Countdown (because The Terminator theme was too obvious to mention), but don't let that put you off. There's Kraftwerk in there too
The writers of the negative reviews that can be found on Amazon clearly didn't listen to The Rip, a magnificent eulogy. I'm tempted to call it Track of the Year, but that would be too hasty of me. Let me simply say this: it's the most beautiful thing Portishead have ever created. Considering that the same group have given us the likes of Glory Box and Only You, that's quite an achievement.
So what of the `journey' that I mentioned at the start of this review? I'd liken it to The Sopranos. It's a journey that's simply too long and involving for one piece of art to show all of it. But one thing's for sure. I can't wait to see where they go next.
A triumph and a landmark May 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's interesting to see longtime Portishead fans criticising "Third". I can't help thinking that maybe the album isn't aimed at Portishead fans. As someone clueless about "trip-hop" and someone entirely new to Portishead, I can hopefully deliver a fairly impartial verdict: it's brilliant. It's bleak, it's dark (more so than any record I own), and it's not for everyone. It sounds designed for headphones (good headphones), for solitary listening. It's one of those difficult, thoughtful, artful experiences that rock music throws up every decade or so.
I don't think I can pigeonhole "Third" into any category. Perhaps "Third" is Portishead's innovative attempt to join that other head - Radiohead - in a terrifying hydra of genre-defying mope-rock. Unpredictable, intense, discombobulating, "Third" has the qualities of Radiohead's darkest and most pioneering work. It's no surprise that Radiohead have already covered "The Rip" in recent soundchecks. Anyone who liked "Kid A" or "Amnesiac" should get this now. And vice versa. Like Radiohead, Portishead tap into the collective unease of human beings in an over-industrialised age of plastic, machine guns and indifference.
PLEASE NOTE: This is one of many products now sold by "Amazon's Preferred Merchant", aka Indigo Starfish. This is not a big deal, but first class delivery is slower - four days in my case.
 Best one yet May 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I own the previous albums and the common feature of both is that there are some truly great and timeless songs on both, but the rest of the albums is only average.
With their latest offering, we again get some great tracks (on a par with Mysterons, Roads, Sour Times etc), but the overall standard is higher than the previous albums and, as a result, Third is an album I will be able to listen to again and again in the future, something I've struggled doing with the other two.
The album starts off with a belter. Silence is on a par with the previous openers, with its high tempo beats, strings and guitar backing.
The next two, Hunter and Nylon Smile, are two of the weakest tracks that I would call fillers. The former is slow and quite dull which climaxes at the end but it's not really enough. Nylon Smile is better with its African sounding drums and Asian strings.
The Rip is one of the album's four great tracks. Eighties sounding synthesizers with Gibbons' trademark vocals provide a melancholy feel with a great ending.
Plastic is classic Portishead and could easily feel at home on one of the earlier albums. There's a bizarre knocking sound in the background that works brilliantly. It's the kind of innovative production we come to expect from Portishead.
We Carry On is my favourite, probably of all Portishead's tracks. A fast stuttering beat, alarm-sounding guitars and a real sense of urgency make this one of the few tracks that has blown me a way in recent months.
Deep Water is an awful barbershop song that really doesn't belong here.
Machine Gun is one of those love it or hate it songs. I personally find the drums too heavy and actually find it irritating. It ends well though. As someone said, it sounds like something from the Terminator films.
Small and Magic Doors are both useful additions to the album, and the closing track, Threads, is the fourth of the 5-star tracks and a fitting ending to the album. It's not dissimilar to the closing track on their debut album, Glory box, and every bit as good. A cool mellow track with those very Portishead-esqe guitars and a simple yet effective beat.
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