Portishead

Product Details

* Audio CD (September 30, 1997)
* Original Release Date: September 30, 1997
* Number of Discs: 1
* Label: London / Pgd
* Catalog Number: 539189
* ASIN: B000003TSP
* Other Editions: Audio Cassette | LP Record
* Average Customer Review: based on 139 reviews. (Write a review.)
* Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,149 in Music (See Top Sellers in Music)
Yesterday: #2,085 in Music

Listen to Samples
To hear a song sample, click on "Listen" by that sample. Visit our audio help page for more information.

1. Cowboys Listen Listen
2. All Mine Listen Listen
3. Undenied Listen Listen
4. Half Day Closing Listen Listen
5. Over Listen Listen
6. Humming Listen Listen
7. Mourning Air Listen Listen
8. Seven Months Listen Listen
9. Only You Listen Listen
10. Elysium Listen Listen
11. Western Eyes Listen Listen
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The bad news is that there is no "Sour Times" to equal the first album's greatness. Lead single "Cowboys" doesn't do the trick, not with its '50s sci-fi dub vibe and the Yma Sumac stylings of Beth Gibbons. The upside is that this bold sophomore release is, even at this late date in trip-hop's evolution, still startling, thanks to the mix of Geoff Barrow's soundscapes and Gibbons's haunting wail. --Jeff Bateman
Tag this product (What's this?)

Your tags: Add your first tag
Customers tagged this item with
First tag: trip hop (Stefhen T. Hovland on Nov 17, 2005)
Last tag: trip hop

trip hop (2), cool beans (1)
Customers who tagged this item

* Stefhen T. Hovland
* Laurie Chancey



* A. Cato "Sometimes Tempest"




Spotlight Reviews
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Search Customer Reviews


19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
Trip-hop noir, February 15, 2005
Reviewer: E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
Portishead created a unique sound in their debut "Dummy," combining smoky jazz and trip-hop. So an equally good follow-up was a pretty tall order. Enter the self-titled "Portishead," which ups the eerie noir feel while not abandoning the cool electronic edge. In the months before their return, it seems appropriate to revisit their older material.

"Did you feed us tales of deceit,/Conceal the tongues who need to speak?/Subtle lies and a soiled coin,/The truth is sold, the deal is done," Beth Gibbons intones, sounding like a slightly gleeful robot. That sets the tone for "Portishead," giving it a darker tone than its predecessor -- darker songs, darker vocals, darker music.

The jazz overtones are still there, bubbling up in songs like the distant "Over" and "Seven Months," which sounds strangely like fellow trip-hop artist Emiliana Torrini. Only the downtempo "Over" and softly poppy "Western Eyes" break from this cooler sound, sounding warm and unaltered. The rest of the album is a different story.

Somehow it adds to the noir atmosphere to have darker, colder sounds woven in with the jazzy trip-hop. "Humming" includes a strange background beat that sounds exactly as you would imagine a UFO. This dark, experimental edge makes it a bit harder to get into than their debut album, but when you do get into it, it's almost frighteningly intense.

The jazzy percussion is one of the first things you notice about this, paired with horns and thick synth. It's surprisingly heady to listen to. Also cold and distant -- which seems appropriate, since the simple lyrics focus on loneliness, melancholy, sadness and loss ("Why should I forgive you,/After all that I've seen,/Quietly whisper,/When my heart wants to scream?").

Beth Gibbons plays around with her vocals this time around -- while Gibbons's voice is normally very pretty, in a few songs she twists it into creepy monotones. It's a bit jarring at first, compared to her usual melodic singing, but it suits the darker songs here. The filtered, eerie intonations in "Cowboys" are downright spine-chilling.

Portishead, presently working on their long-awaited third album, made a triumphant second album. While not as easily accessible as their debut, it's definitely an entrancing experience.… (altro)

Product Details

* Audio CD (October 17, 1994)
* Original Release Date: October 18, 1994
* Number of Discs: 1
* Label: Polygram Records
* Catalog Number: 828553
* ASIN: B000001FI7
* Other Editions: Audio Cassette | LP Record
* Average Customer Review: based on 240 reviews. (Write a review.)
* Amazon.com Sales Rank: #748 in Music (See Top Sellers in Music)
Yesterday: #1,112 in Music

Listen to Samples
To hear a song sample, click on "Listen" by that sample. Visit our audio help page for more information.

1. Mysterons Listen Listen
2. Sour Times Listen Listen
3. Strangers Listen Listen
4. It Could Be Sweet Listen Listen
5. Wandering Star Listen Listen
6. It's A Fire Listen Listen
7. Numb Listen Listen
8. Roads Listen Listen
9. Pedestal Listen Listen
10. Biscuit Listen Listen
11. Glory Box Listen Listen
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The collaboration of studio whiz Geoff Barrow and singer Beth Gibbons, Dummy was made at the same time as a short film noir called "To Kill a Dead Man," and the same approach--gloomy, tormented, and wildly melodramatic--permeates the album. "Sour Times" (the hit in which Gibbons cries, again and again, "Nobody loves me, it's true") and the more cryptic "Glory Box" are the linchpins of the album, defining its sound: dark flashes of old soul and film music, dehumanized electronic bleeps, Gibbons emoting like she's consumed by shame, and a bass-and-beat pulse derived from the slow bump and grind of the Bristol scene that spawned Barrow's old collaborators, Massive Attack. --Douglas Wolk
Tag this product (What's this?)

Your tags: Add your first tag
Customers tagged this item with
First tag: trip hop (Stefhen T. Hovland on Nov 17, 2005)
Last tag: essential listening

essential listening (1), female (1), trip hop (1), electronic (1), favorites (1), down tempo (1), 1994 (1), music (1), CY (1), 1 (1)
Customers who tagged this item

* Jason Gordon
* Bobbi B. Phillips



* Gregory E. Payne "novagentleman16"
* Romantic Anna




add See all 7 customers
Spotlight Reviews
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Search Customer Reviews


37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
Coldly Sensual and Smoothly Retro Memories, June 14, 2000
Reviewer: "liquidink" (St. Louis, Missouri) - See all my reviews
This is definitely another five-star item from me. Every time I listen to it, no matter how long it's sat in my CD shelf (forgotten, but only temporarily and never for too long), I am constantly surprised by how great it is...ahh the joy of "rediscovering" a favorite.

Dark and moody, much of the album sounds like a memory...of a place you've been once, or a movie you saw, or music you heard as you drove by an open window or door late one night in the city. Some of it is incredibly sexy (like "Numb," "Pedestal," and the awesome "Glory Box"), other parts are mournful (like "Biscuit," "Sour Times," "It's a Fire," and "It Could Be Sweet"), and still more are mysterious or just plain funky ("Mysterions" and "Strangers").

It's really hard to pick a favorite song on this album...almost all of them perfectly fit different moods I have at different times. They seem to encompass an incredibly vast range of modern urban sensitivities. "Sour Times" is, of course, wonderfully reminiscent of a moody classic spy flick while a song like "Strangers" bounces back and forth between an intense, pulsing beat like a walk through the club district of a large city and gentle, delicate interludes like the dawn over the Sea of Japan.

My least favorite is "Wandering Star," which I think is a bit too repetative, but even that I'm willing to listen to without much complaint.

Smoothly sexy, definitely modern, and particularly urban, *Dummy* is a classic and well worth your time and money.

Was this review helpful to you? YesNo (Report this)

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
Review from an extrip-hop nut, August 29, 2003
Reviewer: Matthew Gross (Nanuet, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
I am a recovering trip-hop addict. For about a 4 years I ate up just about anything with the words trip-hop or downbeat attached to it. Sure there was a lot of quality albums there from groups like Massive Attack, Portishead, and the first Tricky album, but there was also a lot of [stuff] like the Sneaker Pimps and every other Tricky album. Now I know better. Just because somethings slow and dark doesn't necessarily mean its brilliant.

Portishead is different though. Beth Gibbons backs up the dark music and lyrical gloom with the most beuatifully raspy alto I've ever heard. There are more samples than I can possibly count but they all seem to blend together so tightly that you could swear that this album was recorded by studio musicians (I meant that as a compliment). Theyre self titled album is great too, but i dont think that it or any other album in the genre could ever surpass Dummy.… (altro)

Portishead Desolation Row [Live Compilation] 1998 Lineage: SilverCD > SHN > WAV > FLAC (FLAC Frontend level 3) Soundboard.(1cdr)61:26. 01) Only You 02) Over 03) Half Day Closing 04) Mysterons 05) Glory Box 06) Roads 07) Strangers 08) Sour Times 09) Mysterons 10) Half Day Closing 11) Roads 12) Strangers _________________________________________________________ Tracks 1-3 later w/ Jools Holland 1998 Tracks 4-7 Glastonbury 1998 Tracks 8-9, 11-12 Le Zenith Paris 1998 Track 10 studio rehearsal _________________________________________________________ I just got this CD yesterday! Again, my ul speed is not that great but it shouldn't be much of a problem with this one. Keep seeding and as usual do not encode to any lossy format.… (altro)