Jun 2006

The haunting, tortured vocals of Beth Gibbons combined with the electronically charged, beat-driven, cinematic soul of Geoff Barrow made this album one of THE greatest LPs of all time. Whatever kind of music you were into Portishead's tormented themes and beautifully gloomy melodies were set against a hip hop-influenced beatscape that thumped with the drama of an irregular, slightly disturbed heartbeat. Portishead made feeling uncomfortable feel good. This is electronic music's best ever break-up album and, in that respect, nothing has come close to it since.

- DJ Magazine

• Rolling Stone (5/13/99, pp.79-80) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's."
  Spin (9/99, p.140) - Ranked #42 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s."
  Q (12/99, p.82) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s."
  NME (8/12/00, p.29) - Ranked #29 in The NME "Top 30 Heartbreak Albums" - "...An easily accessible, but still richly emotional new sound for the beginning of the '90s."
  Mojo (1/95, p.50) - Included in Mojo's "25 Best Albums of 1994" - "...A stunning, stylish first album."
  New York Times (1/5/95, p.C15) - Included on Neil Strauss' list of the Top 10 Albums Of '94 - "...The eeriest and most original dance-music album of the year."
  Village Voice (2/28/95) - Ranked #14 in the Village Voice's 1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.
  NME (12/24/94, p.22) - Ranked #6 in NME's list of the `Top 50 Albums Of 1994.'
  Q (6/00, p.66) - Ranked #61 in Q's "100 Greatest British Albums"
  Rolling Stone (3/9/95, p.66) - 3.5 Stars - Very Good - "...Assertive rhythms and quirky production save Portishead from languishing in any coy retro groove. Instead they manage yet another--very smart--rebirth of cool..."
  Spin (3/03, p.118) - "...Turntable wicky-wicky, film-noir theremin, hammer dulcimers, and the tearful vocals of Beth Gibbons...
  Q (10/94, p.125) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...perhaps this year's most stunning debut album..."
  Entertainment Weekly (11/18/94, p.108) - "...mixes cocktail keyboards, spaghetti-western guitars, eerie tape loops, and dub-wise rhythms into what could be called `acid cabaret'....as musically compelling as it is emotionally chilling..." - Rating: A-
  Alternative Press (7/95, p.116) - "...On their debut, instrumental wunderkid Geoff Barrow and torch vocalist Beth Gibbons draw on grooves from Isaac Hayes to the present to create dark, dense tracks that inspire gentle rocking instead of frantic pumping..."

Named for a town near Bristol, England, Portishead is a British dance band that grabs ideas from all over the mod pop world (spaghetti Western guitars, turntable scratching, melancholy soul vocals, atmospheric organs, house beats) and stirs them into spacey, dub-like productions that sound like a dance club in the middle of a "Twin Peaks" dream. You could call it surreal hip-hop pop. But if the beats on the band's debut album achieve a kind of trance-like static, the songs themselves reach for something more rousing. With understated lyrics and overstated melodies, singer Beth Gibbons and bandleader Geoff Barrow write insinuatingly melancholy dance ballads that ebb and flow like waves through rustling waters. Organs quaver in quiet tremolos, guitars emit squiggles and turntables hiccup, while Gibbons, in a high, cutting voice that evokes a less breathy Sinead O'Connor, sings songs of longing and heartbreak with equally palpable emotion.

Portishead: Beth Gibbons (vocals); Adrian Utley (guitar, Hammond organ, bass, Theremin); Geoff Barrow (Fender Rhodes piano, drums, programming).
Additional personnel: Strings Unlimited (strings); Dave McDonald (nose flute); Andy Hague (trumpet); Neil Solman (Fender Rhodes piano, Hammond organ); Gary Baldwin (Hammond organ); Clive Deamer (drums); Richard Newell (programming).
Recorded at State Of The Art and Coach House Studios, Bristol, England.
Named for a town near Bristol, England, Portishead is a British dance band that grabs ideas from all over the mod pop world (spaghetti Western guitars, turntable scratching, melancholy soul vocals, atmospheric organs, house beats) and stirs them into spacey, dub-like productions that sound like a dance club in the middle of a "Twin Peaks" dream. You could call it surreal hip-hop pop. But if the beats on the band's debut album achieve a kind of trance-like static, the songs themselves reach for something more rousing. With understated lyrics and overstated melodies, singer Beth Gibbons and bandleader Geoff Barrow write insinuatingly melancholy dance ballads that ebb and flow like waves through rustling waters. Organs quaver in quiet tremolos, guitars emit squiggles and turntables hiccup, while Gibbons, in a high, cutting voice that evokes a less breathy Sinead O'Connor, sings songs of longing and heartbreak with equally palpable emotion.

In the mid-1990s, the dreamy-but-grooving sound of trip-hop was confined to the U.K. underground until Portishead brought it to the worldwide mainstream. Combining electronics, lush production, Ennio Morricone-like guitar breaks, and angelic singing from frontwoman Beth Gibbons, the band became a leader of the trip-hop movement. After its second album, the band went on hiatus and Gibbons eventually went the solo route with her critically lauded 2002 album, OUT OF SEASON. After a decade apart, the band would reunite for a third record simply titled THIRD.