Third

If my anxiety had a soundtrack it would be this album. No thanks.

This album is so cool. What else sounds like this? It's bursting with ideas! To me this album has a clear point of view, it sounds like impending danger, like fear of the future. It's dark and anxious. I love it

One of few albums I've heard being so weird yet really pulling it off. Industrial, apocalyptic yet soft. 4.5 on first listen.

You're in for a real treat if you enjoy bleeding from your ears.

Triphop-a-riffic!

Music to play while you and your friends sneak into a graveyard in high school

This album was boring. I like ambient beeps and boops, but these beeps and boops bored me

Such a unique style. This album is like a soundtrack to a dark, confusing dream. A great application of electronic instruments to create a feeling of uneasiness.

"Third" is the third studio album and first in 11 years from Bristol UK band Portishead. This is quite the intense listen. It was a move away from trip hop on their previous albums and influenced and incorporating Krautrock rhythms, breakbeats, cathedral, Morrocan drums, soft rock, doo wop and science fiction/horror soundtracks. I can attest to that; there is so much going on throughout this album. In a nutshell, it's experimental electronic music. The one constant is Beth Gibbons' vocals giving each song a mysterious feel along with the music. And, Portishead is Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley. Each band member seems to play every instrument at some point: various keyboards, dums and pecussion, bass, guitars and more. The album start with "Silence" and a Potuguese vocal sample and foreboding keyboards. Some sort of drum loop going on. Maybe about the Golden Rule. "The Rip" was the second single and begins with a weird acoustic guitar. The vocals are haunting and seem to be about a broken relationship. The music transitions with synthesizers coming upfront sounding like the "Stranger Things" intro music. The albums' second half has two more of their released singles. "Machine Gun" was the lead single and starts with a mechanical rhythm, definitely sounding like a machine gun, which eventually gives way and builds with synthesizers and keyboards. It has cryptic lyrics and appears to be another one about a broken relationship. Their last single " Magic Doors" has a weird drum beat beginning and background synthesizers which eventually come to the forefront. Beth Gibbons' vocals dominate the song and again have a mysterious, cryptic meaning...sexual orientation? depression? Every song is unique on this album; I think I could listen to this 20 times and find something different each time with everything going on. I found this album fantastic and recommend it to anyone willing to take a deep dive into experimental electronic music.

Such a cool and unique sound, so much anguish. Every song can be interpreted differently by everyone. There are some very sweet moments like Deep Water. Singing isn't the most controlled, but contributes to their authenticity

J'ai bien entendu toujours horreur de Portishead. Rien ne colle entre la voix, les instruments et la mélodie mais venons-en à l'essentiel. Vous savez probablement que la dernière mise à jour du générateur et sa fonctionnalité permettant de voir quels reviews étaient les plus "likés" du site a propulsé mon nom de robbelvédère en haut de l'affiche. Ma notoriété dépasse aujourd'hui très largement le cadre de ce site et il ne se passe pas un jour sans que l'on m'arrête dans la rue. "Robbelvédère ! Robbelvédère ! J'ai adoré ton review d'Abbey Road !" entendais-je encore ce matin. Et c'est là que ça coince. J'ai rappelé à la charmante demoiselle qui prononça ces mots que ma carrière ne se résumait pas à ce simple review et que j'en avais rédigé pas loin d'une cent-cinquantaine tous plus inspirés que les autres. Je me sens aujourd'hui comme doit probablement se sentir Jean-Marie Bigard quand on l'arrête dans la rue pour lui dire à quel point on aime son sketch de la chauve-souris. "Et mon sketch de la merde qui tombe dans la cuvette, c'est de la chiasse pour vous ?" doit sûrement penser l'intéressé. En bref, je vous conseille vivement de ne pas vous arrêter à mon "hit review" et de lire les autres avec la même attention.

Talk about bleak... this seems like the perfect accompaniment to my increasingly frequent moments of despair. The lead singer ranges from worn to desperate accentuated with occasional banshee moments. Some highlights: “The Rip” has a lovely vocal performance and really wonderful synthesizers. I love this song. Ends in such lushness. “Deep Water” is an odd ukulele piece in the album that still felt strangely in place as the most positive-feeling song here. I like it. “We Carry On” is a fast, relentless song that may be the best option if you wanted to dance to something on this album. I loved it. The out of tune guitar strumming leads into a section where the song feels on the verge of flying apart, but I found it very satisfying when it did not. “Magic Doors” feels like one of the more personal feeling songs on the album. I love its odd beats, the accordion, and the vocal performance. What a brilliant song! “Threads” closes the album with the lyrics “I am one, Damned one, Where do I go?” It’s got quite an ending with a lone bellowing, evil horn. Chilling. Where their debut album “Dummy” was something I could listen to as I worked, “Third” might be a little too ominous for that. It has now been 14 years since this album was released. I don’t know if Portishead will ever release another, but it would be interesting to see where they go from this dark place. I was very unsure initially how I felt about THIRD. On the second time through it came together for me and I fell in love with this album. THIRD is exceptional - and perfect for the world I’m living in.

Tough listen. Really hampered by the vocals. I'm sure there are people out there who are into this but it's so mopey and dark. The instruments aren't awful (albeit maybe a bit boring) but yeah, not great. 3.5/10 (1.75/5)

Thanks to this project, I now know what the love child of Robert Wyatt and Bjork sounds like and it is this. I will pay you to turn it off.

Creepy vibes, weird instrumentals, jarring transitions. I get what the album was going for, and it isn't enjoyable to listen to. Each song has a theme and they all suck. The music is painful to the ears, and the vocals sound stagnant and bland throughout. I thought maybe the premise alone would keep it from a 1 star review, but the longer it went on, the clearer it became that wasn't the case. I certainly won't be going back to this anxiety inducing melodrama anytime soon.

I can't for the life of me work out what the point of this is, let alone why it would appear on a list of albums I need to hear before I die. There's bugger all meaningful structure, no ups or downs, amazingly little substance and it's not particularly musical or even dissionant enough to raise an eyebrow.... it just exists. for 50min. Is anyone out there dull enough that they'd list this as their favourite album ever? Thank fuck I had a couple of other things on the boil while this played, because if I'd had nothing else to do I think I'd still be sitting there waiting for this to finish. What a boring, absolute non-event of an album. 1/5.

Has some significance as the soundtrack to a romance of mine many moons ago that died on its ass, but that doesn't make me any more disposed to accept the dreaminess they peddle so insistently as anything more than a cloak for emotional inarticulacy they find too expedient to grow beyond and lethargy they're too comfortable disguising with bursts of what appears to be energy but only because they build to it from a near stationary starting point.

A faixa inicial me surpreendeu, já que começa com uma fala em português. A banda é inglesa. Falava sobre a "regra dos três". Li que é de um capoeirista de Bristol. O som é incrível! A fala também. Várias experimentações sonoras. Rico demais.

Familiar with Portishead's early material but never got around to this album. Happy to say it holds up for me, this will enter my regular rotation.

i really like this damn sound. kind of free jazz pop music.

This was the musical equivalent of prepping for a colonoscopy.

Do you remember that girl you noticed, The one in the city centre. She was dressed like Stevie Nicks meets Primark, In a crowed of 20 something olds. Shouting at a government with no general direction!. You walk up to this woman with your secret weapon of a medium Toffee latte from Costa. You pretend to care about what ever this collection of sandals are shouting about. You get woman’s name...it’s “Meadow” because why not. “Meadow” will go out for a drink but not for any old drink but for a drink to a little place she knows! . A little place with a band, a band filled with “Meadows” friends. You get to the underground bar literally..it’s a cellar in A 1960s St Katharine Docks ..Taylor Woodrow apartment redevelopment cellar. You sit with “Meadows” crossed legged on the floor, on a cushion, while an Ale in a jam jar is placed on the old cable drum table in front of us. As I start to feel out of place within the weed filled walls, Walls painted with that fidel castro silhouette all over ( because it’s 2009 and it’s original!...from the Gap ) I think even though “Meadows” looks the double of Mélanie Laurent, I can’t do this and her Ecology Degree I have to leave now before it’s too late. it’s too late. “Meadows” friends are on the turned upside down Biffa Bin stage. Celeste...Arlo & Ziggy are on!!! Celeste starts moaning like ET after too many drinks during a Quiet Man convention..Ziggy is kicking a broken wind chime & Arlo is banging his left nut on a burnt out old Tuna can with his woman’s Study’s degree. Just before I leave and go back to my natural resources consuming life, Drinking a Scotch and Back to searching for Tulisa from N-Dubs, “Meadows” informs me it is not about the music and it is about how it make you feel. I feel like Music is about the Music and I have to leave. This Albums makes me feel how you feel reading this about this album about how this Album makes me feel about Music or pretend to like Interstellar

Silence - 3.5 Hunter - 4.5/5 Nylon Smile - 4/5 The Rip - 4.5/5 Plastic - 3.5/5 We Carry On - 4/5 Deep Water - 4/5 Machine Gun - 4/5 Small - 4/5 Magic Doors - 3.5/5 Threads - 4/5

I love it💕💕🤟🤌🤌

Listens: 4 Standout Tracks: We Carry On, Machine Gun, Threads I absolutely adore and am intimately familiar with Portishead's first album Dummy, but strangely, I've never listened to either their self-titled sophomore album or Third. So, I was happy to see it come up on the List: new music to listen to from a band I have some familiarity with. I was initially... not impressed. It felt jarring. Foreign. Some of the trip-hop elements had been shed in favor of... I'm not sure what. Abrupt ends of songs. Noise. Discordant melodies. I wasn't going to give up though, because of how much I like Dummy. On listen number two, and with a little bit more focus on the music and what exactly is happening, some of the noise went away. We Carry On was no longer just loud beeping sounds, there was something underneath that. Same thing with Machine Gun. Things got even better with listen three. Now I am looking at track titles. Oh this is interesting. Deep Water is a nice break from the chaos. But there's still a lot of chaos. A lot of... what's the quality I am looking for... urgency? Severity? Panic? Like an animal trapped in a cage. Trying to break out. Bursting at the seams. All those things I initially said: Jarring, foreign, noise, discordant melodies. They are still there, but the underlying music elements have also been brought to the surface now too. And the trip-hop elements are still there too, but you need to listen closely. The crackle of vinyl. Hip-hop beats, etc. After four and a half listens, I will say, I like this, a lot.

I was originally upset this album wasn't a continuation of Dummy or Portishead but it really grew on me.

A really pleasant surprise this. The Rip and We Carry On are beautiful songs. I like Massive Attack, but always avoided Portishead (maybe because of the name, sounds like a toilet). Not everything works - Plastic is a bit rubbish, but enough does work. Spooky, atmospheric, haunting, and fresh. Am between a 4 and a 5, but I think I'll give in.

Absolutely love this album.

I completely forgot about portis

Fantastic album. Haunting and somber.

Talent at its finest

super chill hunter and the rip are bops

good songs

7/10 Best songs: We Carry On, Magic Doors, Threads There is a lot to like about this album, but one thing that I have a lot of issues with is the fact that as an album it isn't particularly successful. You have these really vibey songs that have a terrific, ever-onward-pushing beat, and then... they abruptly end, and a new song begins. The whiplash just doesn't work for me. This is an album that very much should have been connected through short interstitial tracks, or by rearranging songs to match beats or instruments. But yeah, I do actually enjoy the album overall; the beats and music are excellent, and I appreciate the singer's ethereal voice (although it definitely worked better on Dummy than here). Where the band was doing trip hop during the 90s, in the 00s they shifted to a heavy bass/drum/house/almost industrial kind of feel (sort of Skinny Puppy/pre-Skrillex vibes). Does this album belong on this list? Ehhhh, probably not, but I like it so sure, why not.

219/1001 Portishead - Third Heard before? ✅ Revisit? ✅ Dark, experimental, brooding. The somewhat maligned album from Portishead, this is still great

Banger

I can’t decide if this excellent background music or if it’s terrible since I keep getting distracted trying to listen to the lyrics. The abrupt ending to song one also threw me for a loop. Digging this record though.

A leap to obscure instrumentation and the abandonment of simpler, catchier song structures bring out what’s consistent about Portishead: the spooky, indecisive and menacing mood, its embodiment in Beth Gibbons’ pre-war ghost voice, the Spaghetti Western and jazz embroidery, and sonic choices that are deliberately anachronistic, dated in a forcefully unsettling manner. Theremin sounds too, I suppose. The three year old is taken by “We Carry On”, repeating the mantra-like vocals without understanding. As I treasure many of the sounds and genres being détourned here, this is leng.

I’m on a train and some of the sounds in the album confused me bc I couldn’t tell if it was the song or the train. I think the combo of the instrumental and the voice is interesting and I like it.

Better than I remembered

Better than expected. A pleasant surprise with the vocals. Those melodies were cool.

Less a collection of songs than a cluster of interesting noises, some of which I enjoyed more than others. Sounds more like BEAK> than earlier Portishead.

I like its darkness and creativity, even if it still carries a lot of what I used to hold against Dummy back in the day : it rarely takes off and tends to stay locked in the same mood. Still, there are some nice guitar touches, and the atmosphere manages to move beyond the band’s original trip-hop roots, which keeps it from being just background music. Despite that evolution — and the 14 years between the two albums — you immediately know it’s Portishead. That’s one of the marks of the greats.

Heresy to say this, I’m sure, but I found this album much more interesting than Dummy. It’s not as monotonous and drone-y. The different stylistic twists and turns make for a more enjoyable record and there are some legitimately cool moments, like the doubled up synth solo at the end of Machine Gun. Portishead is still not my cup of tea, but this record gets closer than Dummy does.

I enjoyed it. Nothing stood out but it was soothing to listen to. Would give it another, more thorough listen, perhaps.

Didn’t enjoy the vibes of this one. Not my thing.

The singer sounds like a ghost Sounds like the type of music you'd hear coming from a dodgy nightclub. No thanks - avoid 2 ⭐️

Painful. At some points, genuinely painful. Dummy was one of the 90s best albums. Turns out I can’t say I like Portishead anymore.

Second album by Portishead. This one is much more depressing. Like the soundtrack to a movie where everyone dies, including the dog. Some interesting sounds but I won’t listen again.

Unerträglich

2/10 - I absolutely despised this album. It was just so off putting the entire time. I also listened to it while quite stressed so that definitely did not help. There were no songs that I enjoyed listening too and just wanted it to end.

terrible. what was that garbage.

Not for me

BAD.

1.5

Album: Third Artist: Portishead Year: 2008 Album #: 300 (264 rated) first impressions: I feel like this is supposed to be an influential album and artist so...I was looking forward to it, but now I'm looking forward to the end. This just seems like if Radiohead decided to make songs without traditional structure and more synths and truly grating, mewing vocals. after listening through: the song "Plastic" is honestly one of the worst tracks I've listened to as part of this project; "Deep Water" is like, the origin story of the awful twee ukelele hiphop YouTube covers of the early 2010s? The rest is like, the Social Network Soundtrack mashed up with Kid A, but replaced with the vocals of the woman who sings at 8 am mass at my parents' church. post-reading reviews/wiki: ...did I listen to the same album people love? I guess I really just don't like Trip Hop. recommended for: someone who hates melody in their music and just wants.. slightly unpleasant noise.

Um

Reminded my Why I don’t like Portishead…

I never really knew why I never got into Portishead back in the day. Now I know why. I just could not get into this at all.

Strange and electronic, and not for me. Felt like it was tracks by Massive Attack but under LSD. Not much in the way of replay for me, and definitely not for my listening pleasure

Constant dissonance, depressive soft spoken and sometimes drifting out of key. Minor differences between songs. If you enjoy that, this is for you. But this was not for me.

Yeah this ain’t it

Discordant and tuneless. How the mighty fallen

Not a fan

Not my thing. At all. *Yawns*

Every song seems like a song that’s not even close to being done. Her vocals seem like placeholders and instrumental sections go on for too long with not enough change.

I never listened to this third album. Never knew it existed. I wasn't missing much. Don't like it.

Did not enjoy.

no

I think I’m higher than a 5. I might be at a 10 on another re-listen or two. “Vespertine” is about the carnal feelings of love. “The Downward Spiral” is about the carnal feelings of depression. This album is about the carnal feelings of anxiety, panic & paranoia. This album feels like it’s tackling the self-doubt that consumed the band over the course of their 11-year hiatus, and applying it to a more human condition. It feels like every track here is loosely connected; whether it’s in a plot-driven framework or not, I can’t say, but the general thematics of tension, the inability to love one’s self, and yet the desire to persevere despite the anxiety causing deep internal struggles… it’s all very human, in a way that only a few albums so far have captured. You'll need headphones in to capture it, but it's there. I will say though; it’s not really in the lyricism. It’s definitely there, and it’s very well written, but it’s more so to set up the mood that the instrumentals deliver on, as well as Beth Gibbons’ more Bjork-inspired vocals. The lyricism is sparse, letting the pulse of the synths & percussion & reverb/effect heavy guitar / other instruments sell the anxiety of the album more. I think it fully exposes itself & its intentionality around the 4 minute mark of “We Carry On” – there’s a natural panic that emerges, and while I do think it’s a little hard to focus on her vocals & lyrics because of it, that oddly enhances the song further. Her vocals carry a determination to keep pushing forward, but it’s counteracted by the sort of machine gun percussion & militaristic tone sort of forcing her to push forward, whether she had the determination or not. It makes the struggle of the track feel more real. That balance between emotion & intention, where desire & the circumstances surrounding you might not line up, is something this album captures really nicely, and it’s where all of the anxiety stems from. Ironically, the top review on this site nails the tone of the album correctly, but they gave the album a 1. I don’t know whether it’s because they didn’t like the music, or if it was too close of a reflection to want to give it a higher number out of… I dunno, some other circumstance. I think this album being the soundtrack to anxiety is its perfect strength, and that’s why I’m currently at something higher than a 5. I love albums that can capture specific moods so well, or capture the human spirit in a way that feels deeper past the music. Obviously, I won’t blame anyone for dismissing this as trite electronica that it thinks it’s bigger than itself in a super artsy sense, but for my tastes, I just happened to really fucking dig it. Between this and “Dummy”, consider me a fan. Really, really good stuff.

онестлі - фаєр

Absolutely perfect in every way. This album is a journey, and you can tell that every single note and word is placed perfectly. The production value takes it to another level, transcending genre. The Rip is probably one of the best songs of all time, and I loved all of them that I hadn’t heard before. Portishead can do no wrong. Top Songs: The Rip, Hunter, We Carry On, Machine Gun, Magic Doors

Absolutely excellent. A soundtrack for the turn of the millenium industrial blues.

I'm a big fan of Portishead. When Third came out, I was surprised it sounded so different than the previous albums, no turntable stuff, stark sounds that started and stopped. But once I got used to it I fell in love. The only thing that throws me off still is how much Machine Gun sounds like the Terminator theme at the end. I assume it was subconscious accidently copying it, but still, lol.

There are moments anchored in the familiar — a Hammond B3 organ here, guitar squalls there, some programmed industrial percussive sounds — but what stands out about this album is just how unlike anything else it sounds, like Portishead had no interest whatsoever in returning to trip-hop as its template. Its genius is how is mashes up old-sounding 60s-influenced studio productions with simple guitar and keyboard runs, then interrupting it with unexpected and sometimes ugly-sounding textures that add depth while taking the songs to new, unexpected and exciting places. Even the more conventional elements, like those mentioned above, aren’t deployed in usual ways; industrial stomp isn’t in service of a dance track, but rather to reinforce the starkness. Beth Gibbons’ melancholy voice connects it all, somehow. On another level.

5 stars just for the album cover. I adore this one. Beth sounds great on here. Not nearly as trip-hoppy as their previous works (for better or worse). Wikipedia trivia: "Deep Water" was inspired by Steve Martin's performance of "Tonight You Belong to Me" in the 1979 film The Jerk.

wow deze vond ik echt een bangerrrrrr

i'm no stranger to Portishead, i've listened to all 3 albums long before starting this list. admittedly, i listen to this a lot less than I do the first album Dummy (which is widely considered their best release), so it'll be nice to listen to this and give it a proper rating Silence - 5/5 Hunter - 5/5 Nylon Smile - 4/5 The Rip - 5/5 Plastic - 4/5 We Carry On - 5/5 Deep Water - 3/5 Machine Gun - 5/5 Small - 4/5 Magic Doors - 5/5 Threads - 5/5 Average score: 4.5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ personally, i still don't think this beats Dummy, but it's a great listen overall. it leans more industrial than their previous releases (maybe even a little psychedelic), yet it doesn't distract too much from the soft and haunting vocals from Beth Gibbons. similar vibes to some of Massive Attack's work, which doesn't surprise me at all considering they're both under the trip hop umbrella since i can't give it a 4.5 star rating, I'll round up my rating. i think it's well deserved

90

Holy shit I love Beth gibbons so much this album slaps so hard. The rip is a 10/10 song and the run of we carry on -> deep water -> machine gun is perfect

This album captures a tense feeling of dread about something you can’t quite define, like fearing something you don’t fully understand. It sits in that space the whole time and does it incredibly well. The instrumentals are unique and genuinely cool, with a lot of tempo shifts and strange textures. “Plastic” sounds like it’s glitching out with error-like effects, and at times it feels like something hovering over you, always present and unsettling. The drums are great too, with unpredictable tempos that make every track feel unstable in the best way. The vocals are fantastic, but that’s expected from Beth Gibbons at this point. And the guitar on “We Carry On” is dirty in the best possible way, adding to the album’s anxious edge. Overall, it’s a dark, moody record that I’ll definitely come back to. 9/10.

Portishead goes 3/3

Don't ask me why, but this particular Portishead album took way longer to click than their other two. Well, I guess I should try to explain why. To me, it feels more scattered, experimental, rough, and rigid when compared to the '90s albums. It's maybe the least consistent as well, and their most challenging listen, given it's their most nuanced and detailed album yet, and not as sample-oriented as say 'Dummy'. I'm usually fine with albums like that, but I don't know, something about this one always threw me for a loop. Either way, though, I find that this album grows on me with every subsequent listen, and this one was no different. The songs that I've always adored, like 'Magic Doors' and especially 'The Rip', were just as great this time around, but many of the other one-off moments here resonated with me even more this time. For example, it's never registered how relentlessly dark and gothic 'We Carry On' is, in a sort of industrial way, and I've never heard Gibbons sound so distraught and tense in her vocal delivery. Also, shoutout to that incredible outro, one of the best on the album. And there are A LOT of great outros here, I'd say they're the highlights of this album. Like with 'Machine Gun', which never ceases to amaze me with how grainy and overdriven those drums sound against this glorious detuned analog synth line. The outro on 'Small' is another incredible outro, bringing out this post-rocky, delayed, and overdriven guitar tone that I just love so much. This entire song's progression is mind-blowing as well, just building up to that one cathartic moment. 'Deep Water', for as out of character as it is, seems intentionally placed to break the tension at one of the most precarious moments in the album. I've mentioned 'Magic Doors' already, but it's lyrically one of the most bleak songs here, which is saying a lot. There's so much defeat in Gibbons' words and melody, a sadness only rivaled by a song like 'Roads'. I don't think I fully understand this album *yet*. It lacks an identity, and I'd even say it lacks a direction for me at least. But there are far too many incredible moments here for that to even begin to hinder my enjoyment of it. I'd say this time around, this album really clicked. Really Really clicked...

A work of genius. I loved their first two albums and was excited for this. Combining the early vibes with Motorik Krautrock repetition and loops and a Broadcast folk horror feel...it took a few listens to sink in, but this is an almost perfect album for me. 5 stars every time. Dark, haunting, melodic, glorious

They go to some very dark places on this album and it works beautifully. Moving from trip-hop to a more experimental art rock approach, these songs often sound like a cry for help. There are echoes of Brian Eno here and there and Beth Gibbon's voice is plaintive and haunting. It's a shame that this was their last album since, to me, this was their pinnacle. I love the way the songs morph and change halfway through such as on "The Rip." A highlight is "Deep Water" with just the ukulele accompaniment and those creepy backing vocals. A dark masterpiece of an album that lingers in its sonic intensity.

Absolute genius. The sounds are expertly picked, especially on "Machine Gun". My ears love picking this album apart and my brain loves getting lost in it

Her voice is mesmerizing. I really enjoyed how We Carry on built up- very rhythmic. I am starting to understand what Trip Hop is... Some of it is a bit TOO experimental for me, but overall, I really enjoyed it.

Their first two albums were dark but also had some warmth and sensuality. This one is just bleak, experimental and hopeless. It’s also their best

It's for album like this one that I started this whole adventure. Mesmerizing.

I can hardly think of a better album in the genre. So cold, sombre and atmospheric... Listening to this in November is dangerous.

Thought about giving this a 4, but really it’s a 5. Definitely picking this up on vinyl. It’s a masterpiece.

Really like Portishead, feeling 5 stars

Pour one out for the thousands of people that must have assumed their CD was scratched up after listening to the end of track one. This is definitely one of those albums that probably benefits from multiple relistens while in the right mood. Chugged through this one three times today and ended up appreciating what it was going for a drastically more on each relisten, but it only gets that privilege because their debut album Dummy proved that the juice is worth the squeeze. I really like the Bjork-style vocal delivery you get on tracks like Magic Doors that suits the experimental triphoppy strangeness they're aiming for. It's a good album and I like that they're having fun playing with audience expectations and deliberately subverting that familiarity, especially when it finds its groove in the latter half of the album. But it sometimes feels like it's doing too much. Like, I've always hated the abrupt end to Silence, otherwise my favourite track on the album. I do still reckon Portishead peaked at Dummy. But I wouldn't rate Portishead below 5. fav tracks: Silence, Plastic, Small, Threads

Not like the other two, but just as good if not better if you give it a chance. A bit more industrial than trip hop, but her voice carries the entire thing anyway.

A brave move away from their classic Trip Hop, but still excellent.

Awesome - brittle voice fighting the great sounding noise. Already classic.

It might be an unpopular opinion, but i prefer this to Dummy, hands down - heavy duty beats, mournful lyrics, everything you could want and more. Not too fussed about having a random ukulele track in the middle, but it's not enough for me to take a star off!

Released after an 11-year hiatus, Third is a radical reinvention of Portishead’s sound. It abandons the trip-hop blueprint that defined their 1990s classics Dummy and Portishead, replacing it with a bleak, experimental vision that draws from krautrock, industrial, psychedelia, and early electronic music. The result is a record that is as unsettling as it is masterful. Lyrics & Themes Beth Gibbons’ lyrics are more fragmented and cryptic than ever, often evoking isolation, dread, and emotional exhaustion. Rather than storytelling, the lyrics function as emotional textures, reinforcing the album’s themes of alienation, trauma, and existential collapse. On “Silence”, Gibbons opens with: “Wounded and afraid / Inside my head / Falling through changes” — setting the tone for a record that feels like a psychological unraveling. “We Carry On” repeats the mantra-like line: “We carry on / Even when it’s wrong”, suggesting a kind of doomed perseverance. “Threads” ends the album with: “I’m always so unsure / I’m always so unsure”, leaving the listener in a state of unresolved anxiety. The lyrics are not confessional in a traditional sense, but they are deeply affecting, often impressionistic and morose, matching the sonic desolation around them. Music & Production Musically, Third is a complete departure from the smoky, sample-based trip-hop of their earlier work. The band banned themselves from using any instruments or techniques they had used before, leading to a raw, analog, and often abrasive sound. “Silence” opens with a propulsive, off-kilter drum loop and Morse-code-like guitar stabs, immediately signaling the shift. “Machine Gun” is built around a mechanical, industrial beat that sounds like a weapon being loaded and fired, with Gibbons’ voice floating above like a ghost. “The Rip” begins as a fragile folk ballad, then morphs into a shimmering arpeggiated synth sequence, evoking a psychedelic out-of-body experience. “Deep Water” is a ukulele doo-wop interlude that feels absurdly out of place, yet somehow essential to the album’s surreal tone. “We Carry On” is a krautrock-inspired monolith, with a relentless two-note riff and claustrophobic production. The production is lo-fi and hi-fi at once, using vintage analog synths (ARP 2600, EMS VCS3, Minimoog), tape saturation, and deliberate imperfections to create a cold, cinematic dread. The band avoided quantizing, left errors intact, and refused to sync delays to tempo, resulting in a haunting asymmetry. Influence & Legacy Third was not immediately accessible, but its influence has grown exponentially over time. It is now widely regarded as a landmark in experimental pop and electronic rock. Critics initially divided, but retrospective praise has been near-universal. It redefined what a comeback album could be — not a nostalgia trip, but a total artistic rebirth. Artists like Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, FKA twigs, and Arca have cited Third as a key influence on their approach to texture, tension, and emotional abstraction. In 2013, NME ranked it #330 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Pros & Cons Table Copy Pros Cons Fearlessly original — abandons past success for new sonic territory Not listener-friendly — abrasive, dissonant, and emotionally draining Production is a masterclass — analog, raw, and immersive Lacks melodic hooks — many tracks are rhythm-driven or atmospheric rather than catchy Lyrics are haunting and evocative — abstract but emotionally resonant Pacing is uneven — tracks like Deep Water or Magic Doors can feel jarringly out of place Influential and ahead of its time — now seen as a classic Initial reception was polarizing — some fans of Dummy found it too alienating Conclusion Third is not a comfortable listen, and it was never meant to be. It is a bleak, beautiful, and brutal record that rejects nostalgia and embraces decay. It doesn’t ask to be loved — it demands to be reckoned with. Over time, it has revealed itself as a masterpiece, not just of Portishead’s catalog, but of 21st-century experimental music.

Didn't really know this band before hearing them on this list. I've listened to all their albums now. Probably one of the best parts of doing this list.

Dark, sludgy. Felt like prog-industrial. The droning on "We Carry On" just about drove me spare. Really good album.