Put on any Portishead CD and prepare to turn up the thermostat
\nup a couple of degrees. The first track off of their classic
\nDummy<\/i> or their very good follow-up
\nPortishead<\/i> have enough chill in them to make the hairs in
\nthe back of your neck stand up.<\/p>\n
Unlike so many electronic artists out there, Portishead seem
\nmore intent on cramming as few sounds as they can onto an album.
\nThe tempo for
\nPortishead<\/i> is almost always a crawl. And Beth Gibbens’s
\nvoice sounds like a mixture of an ice pick and some burning
\nincense.<\/p>\n
“Cowboys” opens the album with a true noir sound. Gibbens’ voice
\nsounds like a couple of switches on the mixing table were all out
\nof whack, but it creates a decent, jarring effect for the listener.
\nIt may be a bit too “Sprockets” for most people, but it’s
\ndefinitely adventerous.<\/p>\n
“All Mine,” is a little more conventional. With an elaborate
\norchestral setup, a jarring mix of strings and horns drive the
\nchorus. Conductor Nick Ingman deserves major props for adding, but
\nnot overpowering Portishead’s intoxicating gloom.<\/p>\n
Other tracks, like the brooding “Humming” and “Only You” show
\nwhy Dr. Dre is one of the band’s biggest fans. Though the two seem
\nto be polar opposites on their approach to an album, one thing
\nrings true for both of them: making each beat sound like it needed
\nto be there.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately,
\nPortishead<\/i> suffers a slight case of sophomore slump. Because
\ntheir first CD was so groundbreaking,
\nPortishead<\/i> at times retreads what
\nDummy<\/i> already accomplished. Two years after it was released,
\nI still have the same problem: Why listen to
\nPortishead<\/i> when you can listen to
\nDummy<\/i>?<\/p>\n
Ok, there is a thing to be said for variety. If I get bored, I
\ndo prefer to listen to
\nPortishead<\/i>. But listeners can only hope that Portishead will
\ntake as big of a risk as they did making
\nDummy<\/i>. Taken as a whole,
\nPortishead<\/i> is a wonderful listen. Taken as an artist’s work,
\nhowever, they could have stirred things up just a tad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":25202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6213],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36407","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-portishead","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36407"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36407"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}