Reviews
8 (out of 10) - "...if DUMMY was smoky film noir material, this is a choking Hammer Horror ho-ho-free hoedown....wavering, painfully sensitive choruses, desperately distorted soundscapes and good old-fashioned tunes...", 9 (out of 10) - "...Like every brilliantly dismal act from Screamin' Jay Hawkins to the Wu-Tang Clan, Portishead tiptope across a ledge where utter seriousness is one false move away from tragic self-parody. They manage the high-wire act with brittle grace, bitter poise. And they sound as if they could break at any second...", Included in Q Magazine's "50 Best Albums of 1997.", "...Gibbons' extraordinary voice has grown darker, nastier, and more spine-tingling, while the new songs vary from grim...to serene....PORTISHEAD looks over the cliff, then dives headlong into the abyss...", Ranked #18 on Melody Maker's List of 1997's "Albums of the Year.", Ranked #6 on Spin's List of the "Top 20 Albums of the Year.", "...crafted with care and eloquence, and somehow articulating the space that exists between the emotional and the physical....Portishead succeed with aplomb on their eponymously-titled follow-up album...", Ranked #14 in the Village Voice's 1997 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll., 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...the group easily re-establishes its mastery of the genre now known as trip-hop....Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley have refined their sound to an instantly identifiable essence...", Ranked #32 in Nme's 1997 Critics' Poll., "...This sophomore spook-athon from chilly U.K. combo Portishead clanks across the attic, via Geoff Barrow's skeletal samples and funereal keyboards. Beth Gibbons' surgical-steel voices slices into her partner's scraps of musical meat, for an effect that's hypnotic, bloodless, and addictive..." - Rating: A, "...Beth Gibbons shows off stark vocal mood swings as she croons and claws under a bitter moon. A 30-piece orchestra keeps you strung out on drama, while producers/bandmates Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow snap out the beats...", "...deep fried, delightful doom music....they're still...the original flames, the instigators, the innovators and still the only sure soundtrack to the future."
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