I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve you

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Upon the first few listens of Portishead’s Third you can begin to imagine why it took ten years to create. The sounds are dark, fractured and intricate. The groaning samples that make up the backbone of “Nylon Smile” have the earmarks of hours, if not days, of studio tinkering to get just the right sound. The songs are still steeped in regret and sorrow - only now they feel slightly more cramped and closed in. Most of the textures and styles of their earlier albums are gone and the only constant left is Beth Gibbons’ fragile crooning. There’s more Tom Waits here than Ennio Morricone this time.