Portishead – Portishead (1997)

There aren't many albums that I remember being moved by hearing something genuinely new, but Portishead's debut album, Dummy, was one. Inexplicably, and unexpectedly, I don't actually own that album, so our first visit to Portishead is their second album, the eponymous Portishead.

As you'd expect, the notes I made on listening to this are full of words like brooding, sinister, haunting, dark, and it's certainly an album which offers 45 minutes of atmosphere, experience, rather than eleven nice songs. That's not to say that the songs aren't great, they are, but this is much more an album of 'feel' rather than words and tunes.

Beth Gibbon's slightly distorted, almost sounding at times like a frightened Eartha Kitt, vocals drive the songs, but they need the understated yet powerful drumming of Geoff Barrow, and bass heavy accompaniment of Adrian Utley alongside the threesome's ear for the primitive scratchy sounding recordings backing the songs, and the overall mix to generate that feeling.

There isn't a weak song on the album, nor a stand out, so I'm not going to mention any. Sit down somewhere quiet, with subdued lighting, relax, kick your slippers off and enjoy a few minutes floating slightly nervously in the world of Portishead.

Link to full album

4* - a fantastic, moving album from Bristol's 1990s scene.