Caught in the Carousel

Portishead

Third
Mercury

Wake up and smell the … Novocain? Obviously this "Third" Portishead album was gonna hurt. A lot. Portishead felt the pressure to be sure; it's been 10 years since their last effort (Roseland NYC Live, 1998), and Beth and crew weren't going to take any chances. And apparently they have sobered up. Was this a good choice? I haven't decided.

The band's 1994 drug-soaked, seminal classic, "Dummy," made Portishead the darlings of the Indie media scene in both England and the US. If there is one thing you must admire about Portishead, it's their consistency: you like one Portishead song, you like them all. And they put on a fantastic live show, too. The second album, 1997's titular Portishead, was like "Hey, this is Portishead's second album, and it's really good!" But you could tell the momentum was slowing down a wee bit. Just a teeny-tiny, wee little bit. This was confirmed by the appearance of the live Portishead album—"Don't have any new stuff? Put out a live album! With a big orchestra! Yeah, that'll do the trick!" N'es pas?

Third opens with the track "Silence"—a choppy, bouncy, prog-rock ballad, including a Spanish-language, sampled over-dub and goofy guitar work. All at once you feel it: something is definitely missing. What happened to the innovations of their past music? This stuff seems like it is trying way too hard to be a different, newer Portishead. That is the major short-falling of this collection. There's even a dubious ukulele track. I am not kidding! A Portishead ukulele track. ??? There are some classic Portishead songs ("Hunter," "The Rip" and especially "Threads") which hearken back to the infectious coolness of their earlier CDs, but they are few and hidden far between. Beth's vocals, which before were so endearing, here seem uber-whiny. What gives?

Don't get me wrong—this is a fair-to-middlin' album, just good, not great. I don't think Portishead will be winning over any new fans, and certainly some old-timers will be disappointed with these meager 11 tracks. (Why is it that every full-length Portishead CD has only 11 tracks? Are they numerology nuts? Do they get studio discounts?) But in the 3 weeks this advance copy has been in my stereo, it has grown on me. I do like it, but it's no Dummy.

I just wish I could have warned Portishead in advance, to quote from Zippy the Pinhead, "Newness is a thing of the past."

—Dr. Slurpee, Podiatrist to the Stars