- Dummy · 1994
- Dummy · 1994
- Dummy · 1994
- Dummy · 1994
- Dummy · 1994
- Dummy · 1994
- Dummy · 1994
- Dummy · 1994
- Dummy · 1994
- Dummy · 1994
- Dummy · 1994
- Portishead · 1997
- Portishead · 1997
Essential Albums
- Eleven years following their self-titled second album, Portishead’s Third is an inventive, challenging song cycle that never settles for easy listening. The time off was no vacation. Principal producer and writer Geoff Barrow was decidedly unhappy over the group’s comfort zone, disturbed that the ensemble’s experimental ways were so easily co-opted by others and fitted as a lifestyle soundtrack for a sophisticated, affluent class. With Third, the challenge was on to reinvent the group’s spooky trip-hop, film-noir magic as something far more extreme. “Magic Doors” and “Plastic” both clock in at the conventional three-and-a-half minute mark, yet in their compact structures the tunes cut-up and break down in unexpected jolts with beats slowed to crawls and Beth Gibbons’ eerie vocals tortured into free-fall. The minute and a half of “Deep Water” is a shockingly tame ukulele ballad with a barbershop quartet mocking Gibbons’ depressive observations, but elsewhere the emphasis is pure tension. The disruptive grooves of “Silence” set the ominous path. Songs shut down abruptly, or clang on with battered electronics (“Machine Gun”). Intense.
- Portishead's debut isn't just one of the best albums to rise from the short-lived trip-hop movement—it's one of the best albums of the '90s, period. Combining languid breakbeats and haunting synths, the album is a downtempo spy novel, evoking dark alleys, loaded glances, and sinister undercurrents. Beth Gibbons sings like a caged bird, resilient yet full of sorrow, and partner-in-crime Geoff Barrow builds beats like a cinematographer composes a frame, deftly balancing light and shadow. This thing will give you chills.
Albums
- 2008
- 1997
- 1994
Artist Playlists
- From trip-hop pioneers to widescreen specialists.
- The Bristol, UK sound that shaped a generation.
- Where Public Enemy met Nina Simone.
Singles & EPs
- 2008
- 1998
- 1997
- 1997
- 1995
- 1994
Live Albums
More To Hear
- The Bristol group revisit their game-changing 1994 debut, Dummy.
- The singer-songwriter selects the 5 Best Songs on Apple Music.
- The singer picks the 5 Best Songs in Apple Music.
- The guitarist guests, playing the Ramones and Portishead.
- A downbeat playlist, featuring tracks chosen by Blood Orange, Loyle Carner and Jax Jones.
- The songwriter and musician explains how he keeps music fun.
About Portishead
Named for a coastal town near their home base of Bristol, England, the pioneering trip-hop band Portishead created a hauntingly seductive form of electronic music. • Producer and multi-instrumentalist Geoff Barrow met singer Beth Gibbons in 1990 at a training for Enterprise Allowance, a government program that gave unemployed people money to start their own business. • The pair began making music together and soon added Adrian Utley, a jazz session guitarist with an impressive library of spy films. Utley and Barrow began combining influences and creating Portishead’s original sound. • The band’s landmark 1994 debut album, Dummy, reached No. 2 on the UK charts and earned the prestigious Mercury Prize. The singles “Sour Times” and “Glory Box” both went Top 20. • Portishead’s self-titled 1997 sophomore album also reached No. 2 in the UK and just missed the Top 20 in the US. The single “All Mine” became their first—and to date only—Top 10 single in the UK. • In the years that followed, Barrow moved to Australia and took a break from making music. Portishead finally returned in 2008 with Third, which reached No. 7 on the US charts and gave the band their third consecutive No. 2 placement in the UK.
- HOMETOWN
- Bristol, England
- FORMED
- 1991