Portishead

Third
Island

Don’t be confused. Third is not Portishead’s third album. Well, OK, it sort of is, but not really. See, Portishead released Dummy in 1994, Portishead in 1997 and Roseland NYC Live in 1998. So, technically, Third is their fourth album, but it’s their third studio album.

None of that really matters, though; what matters is Portishead is back after a decade-long hiatus with this, their third or fourth album. And what matters most is Third is well worth the wait.

Third contains everything good and commendable you might remember about the band, and none of the bad. At their best, this threesome have the ability to place you in both the future and the past — something Third does beautifully and continually. You’re led from noir-ish tracks like “Hunter,” which invokes the dingy, sultry smoking rooms of years past, where men talked of espionage and sabotage, to “Machine Gun,” which gives the impression of standing on the deck of some great hovering spacecraft, preparing for an epic battle between man and machine. The most amazing thing? The music is never jarring, which begs the questions: How do they do it? Are they from outer space?

Beth Gibbons’ voice has never sounded better, and Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow’s production is up-to-date while remaining firmly rooted in their trip-hop heyday. The band is still plenty moody and somber, but there’s just enough hopefulness in there so the album never grows tiresome. In fact, it’s devastatingly gorgeous.  
Unlike this band’s previous studio albums, which could lapse into sameness — a brilliant sameness, to be sure, but still sameness — by mid-album, Third never stops evolving, adapting to new atmospheres with every passing track so masterfully, you’d swear they’d been working on this collection for at least 10 years. (Lisa Slade)