I need your assistance. I've proposed the bosses on the site I write for to review the new Portishead.
Fact is I'm not a huge fan of the band (although I really like their first album), and I haven't much to say about "Third".
So would you help me with my homework ? I mean I'm not gonna copy/paste what you'll say, of course
Anyway it'll be in French, so you won't be able to tell
"Explain why you love (or don't love) Portishead's Third"
Well, finally after a third listening, i have to admit the music is very well written and played, but the problem is that Beth Gibbons seems to be over depressed to the unbearable
and I 'm not a fan of that cold direction they gave to their sound
evreybody does that nowadays... they've lost a ot of their originality (that subtle mix of dance and pop they had crafted for Dummy>:i>)
and it's way too depressed for me
i've sent my review now
strange album : I agree the music is sometimes beautiful, but anyway it is the perfect album for the very predictable critics : experimental, dark, and unaccessible to the general public, much less accessible than "Dummy"
Once they managed to appeal to electronic dance lovers and alternative rock fans, now they fall in the second category only.
That's more or less what i wrote
Despite being still very idiosynchratic and personnal, their music is no longer original.
Now, with their krautrock influenced music and their self pitying lyrics, they are not so far from Radiohead's niche.
And it is painful and tiring to me hearing a beautiful 40-year old woman singing the same claustrophobic lyrics all through the album like a lost teenager.
That exactly the point raised by Toni in the Beatles Survivor thread : depressed songs and lyrics are always praised by the critics
Humor, exuberance and frivolity are often cast aside.
Pity.
And this doesn't only apply to music-critics. It's the same with film-critics: To get an OSCAR you have a much better chance, if you play a character that is mentally ill or if the movie is a drama.
A comedy has no chance.
Whoa, I'm listening to Sun Kil Moon right now.. Portishead would probably sound like Santa Claus on a snowy morning right about now. My god this is depressing.
Let me post a (quite) funny personal true story that illustrates the scary qualities of the last Portishead incarnation. On Wednesday night my 8 year-old son Miguel jumped into our bed during the night.
Honorio: What’s the matter, Miguel?
Miguel: I’m scared, I was having a nightmare.
H: Don’t worry, Mike, it was just a dream. But tell me, what kind of nightmare, son?
M: I was dreaming about those little men of daddy’s magazine.
H: What daddy’s magazine? And what little men? Anyway, don’t worry, Mike, you’re with mom and dad now. Sleep here with us for a while.
Next morning I saw the magazine (“daddy’s magazine” was the last issue of Rockdelux) and I just had to laugh. On the cover there was a photo of Portishead and I had to admit that was really creepy. The expression on the face of Beth Gibbons (with her eyes almost out of the sockets) was quite terrifying but the thing that scared my son the most was the two blurred figures of Barlow and Utley in the background.