Portishead - Third

Guess I should have started at the first one, but I found the third one. I heard Portishead do a guest DJ set on NPR's All Songs Considered podcast and that was the first time I had heard their music. I remembered it enough to get this CD about 4 months later. I'm slow. Deal with it.


When I was buying this CD it was Record Store Day, so I also had a stack of records including, but not limited to, The Decemberists, Belle And Sebastian, Elvis, and The Monkees. Quite a variety of music that was purchased that day. Even though it was RECORD Store Day, I looked through the used CD's, as always. They are cheap and good, so I look. I almost always find something I want to get, so this time I got Third by Portishead. While I was buying my massive stack of vinyl, this CD was set to the side. I had paid my total and was ready to go when we noticed that I forgot to get the CD. I was already totaled and paid, so he gave it to me for free. Such a nice guy. Plus, I guess it helps that
I spend my entire allowance at that store every month. As I was leaving the store, another person told me how good the CD is. He said, "It's spy movie music." I laughed and left, then I listened to the first song and knew what he meant.

I have kind of a spy movie-esque car, so I turned up the volume a bit louder than usual, opened all the windows and the sunroof (it was about 78 and sunny), and drove around town really fast. It was fun until I ran into traffic. Oh well, I guess spies run into traffic sometimes too. The music didn't have to slow down though, after a while it did, but not for long. It picked up again after a few songs, as did my volume levels. So did my car's speed, and that was fun.

On the NPR Podcast I mentioned earlier, they called Portishead's music style as trip-hop. I hadn't heard of this before, and now I am aware that I kind of like it. I now have learned two new styles of music since writing this blog; shoegazer, and trip-hop. Any other electronic sounding music styles I should know? Huh?

I've given this about two listens all the way through and have become lost in it. Be careful, you'll be addicted soon enough. That's a good addiction though, I certainly don't mind not being aware of anything while I listen to a record.

Written in 15 minutes while highly caffeinated.


Two favourite tracks:
Silence/Machine Gun I can't choose.
Threads