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THE SHADOW OF SIN.
"Before you leave, take out the trash in the kitchen.." My lover and client, Phyllis Dietrichson, smiles with sarcasm. The "trash," in the jargon of our private contract, was this Mister X of whom I had seen the old gray photo and nothing more. A silhouette in the darkness of an unlit living room, all I could know about him, poor Christ. Because in my line of work, information often holds relative value, it’s the 'when' and 'how' that matter: the 'who' is a mechanical habit in the clauses of an agreement signed with blood. And with money, naturally. The less I know, the fewer implications, fewer problems, and wasted talent. A quick and effective job, as usual. I'll wait in the dim light of the living room for the familiar silhouette to approach. Trying not to stain the light leather of the sofa and the satin curtains. I promised Phyllis, and Tommy Udo always keeps his promises to a beautiful woman. Room 94-97, I turn the key in the lock and observe the empty rooms in the dark apartment. I sit down, light a slippery cigarette as I adjust the volume, in the background, of the Hi-Fi in the smoke. I take a record from the protruding shelf, on the cover a big 'P' on a light blue background. I insert it into the player and notice the eleven tracks on the back.
A tape from the past introduces the percussive, dark rhythm of 'Silence' traversed by the magnetic voice of Beth Gibbons and the post embroidery of the guitar. The noir chant 'Hunter' is a light sigh in anguish, often scarred by electric shocks. Thunders that split the sky in two, black with rain and suffering. 'Nylon Smile' has the circular and sustained electronic pace of the Teutonic Tarwater, 'The Rip' turns a delicate bucolic arpeggio into a crescendo of soft keyboards. The obsessive stride of 'Plastic', sharp and icy on the murky tones of the vocalist, moves the clock hands back to the beginnings of the legendary 'Dummy'. In the hypnotic and changeable 'We Carry On', the Bristolian creature tries to break away from labels and sound suits of a decade ago, becoming something else and materializing in the sudden and violent industrial barrages of a pneumatic drill 'Machine Gun', in the brief melody of the folk jolt 'Deep Water', in the psycho-rock flashes of the liturgical 'Small' and in the transfigured trip-hop memory of today in the concluding and magnificent 'Threads'. Eleven years, eleven tracks, eleven little reasons for the omen of a new masterpiece.
Portishead's "Third" disconcerts, and immerses the beloved and iconographic sound of the Bristol trio in dark/industrial waters. The chiaroscuro atmosphere of the past is now leaden, angular, merciless. Beth Gibbons' stunning voice in apnea remains the unmistakable trademark, the unprecedented threads of deus-ex-machina Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley on the co-starring guitar thrust this third memorable work into a distressing and complex environment. Yet of extreme, unique charm.
The door opens silently. The silhouette looks at me, surprised: "Excuse me, but who are you, what do you want in my house.." Pale with terror, he stares at the barrel of my silencer. A hole in the forehead, not even a scream, no one having seen or heard, the immaculate walls without the slightest red mark. I go into the kitchen, I need to get the big dark trash bags. I’m Tommy Udo, I’m a hitman for hire. "Before you leave, take out the trash in the kitchen.." Sure, dear.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Silence (05:00)
"Esteja alerta para a regra dos três.
O que você dá retornará para você.
Essa lição você tem que aprender.
Você só ganha o que você merece."
Tempted in our minds
Tormented inside lie
Wounded and afraid
Inside my head
Falling through changes
Did you know when you lost?
Did you know when I wanted?
Did you know what I lost?
Do you know what I wanted?
Empty in our hearts
Crying out in silence
Wandered out of reach
Too far to speak
Drifting unable
Did you know when you lost?
Did you know when I wanted?
Did you know what I lost?
Do you know what I wanted?
02 Hunter (03:58)
No one said,
We'd ever know each other.
A new evidence, is what we require,
In this world.
I stand on the edge of a broken sky,
And I'm looking down, don't know why.
And if I should fall, would you hold me?
Would you pass me by?
Ooh, you know I'd ask you for nothing,
Just to wait for a while.
So confused,
My thoughts are taken over.
Unwanted horizons face me instead,
Won't let go.
I stand on the edge of a broken sky,
And I'm looking down, don't know why.
And if I should fall, would you hold me?
Would you pass me by?
Ooh, you know I'd ask you for nothing,
Just to wait for a while.
05 Plastic (03:30)
I wonder why
I don't know what you see?
Of course I care
I won't pretend
It's just I thought
I'd said enough
Don't you know life turns me
Always wants me
I can hold the fight
I could try
But don't know what you hear
'Cause in my heart, you are so clear
It's just I thought
I'd said enough
Don't you know life turns me
Always wants me
I can hold the fight
On your stage
A show that you create
All by yourself
I am nowhere
You never notice
You are so sure
Don't you know life turns me
Always wants me
I can hold the fight
07 Deep Water (01:33)
I'm drifting in deep water
Alone with my self doubting again
I try to not to struggle this time
For I will weather the storm
Gotta remember
Don't fight it
Even if I
Don't like it
Somehow turn me around
No matter how far I drift
Deep waters won't scare me tonight
08 Machine Gun (04:46)
I saw a saviour, a saviour come my way
I thought I'd see it in the cold light of day
But now I realize that I'm only for me
If only I could see (you) return myself to me
And recognize the poison in my heart
There is no other place, no one else I face
The remedy will agree with how I feel
Here am I with plenty, what more can I say?
For I am guilty for the voice that I obey
Too scared to sacrifice the choice chosen for me
If only I could see (you) return myself to me
And recognize the poison in my heart
There is no other place, no one else I face
The remedy to agree with how I feel
10 Magic Doors (03:31)
I can't deny what I've become
I'm just emotionally undone
I can't deny, I can't be someone else
when I have tried to find the words
To describe this sense absurd
Try to resist my thoughts
But I can't lie
I've been losing myself
My desire I can't have
No reason am I for
I can't divide or hide from me
I don't know who I'm meant to be
I guess it's just the person that I am
Often I've dreamt that I don't wait
Enjoy the gift of my mistake
and yet again I'm wrong and I confess
I've been losing myself
My desire I can't have
No reason am I for
11 Threads (05:47)
Better if I could find the words to say
Whenever I take a choice it turns away
I'm worn, tired of my mind
I'm worn out, thinking of why
I'm always so unsure
I battle my thoughts I find I can't explain
I've travelled so far but somehow feel the same
I'm worn, tired of my mind
I'm worn out, thinking of why
I'm always so unsure
I'm always so unsure
I'm worn, tired of my mind
I'm worn out, thinking of why
I'm always so unsure
I'm always so unsure
I'm always so unsure
I'm always so unsure
I'm always so unsure
I'm always so unsure
I am alive when I sleep
Why am I not in all that I got?
I can't find no one to blame
Stand, stand, damned one
Damned one
Damned one
Damned one
I am one
Damned
One
Where do I go?
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Other reviews
By The_dull_flame
"Perhaps the best album by Portishead, certainly already cataloged as one of the best of 2008... eleven years have passed, but it was worth it."
"'The Rip' ... a digital nightmare with the finale of a mournful electric synth that is a real stroke of genius."
By sylvian1982
Rhythms have become robotic, cold, dark, and soulless.
Machine Gun... catapults the listener into an alienating electronic barrage.
