Portishead

Third

As Adam & Joe once said: What is it with Portishead only showing up when a recession is looming? Dummy emerged in 1994 and might have sprung from the same paranoid mindset as Massive Attack and Tricky, but it existed entirely in a world of its own imagining. Some 14 years later and little has changed, but when you have a sound and a vision this perfect and this beautiful, you really don’t need to go throwing in curveballs for effect. Glitchy, smoky, spooky backdrops against Beth Gibbons’ remarkable voice is a blueprint that has served them well. While Third doesn’t have a ‘Sour Times’ (although ‘We Carry On’ is astonishing), its power and its impact aren’t diminished a single jot.