lambchops's Full Review: Sour Times [Maxi Single] by Portishead
I like music. I like adventurous, experimental music. I like trip-hop. I do not however enjoy Portishead. I realize that this is a pretty brave statement considering the English band is widely regarded as one of the most talented and revolutionary electronica acts of the 1990’s. But it is fact.
Portishead is a gloomy, melodramatic trio of apparent artistes. Most visible (unfortunately) is Beth Gibbons. Her bone chilling voice paired with the rhythmic thumping of the typical trip-hop paraphernalia makes for an incredibly under whelming experience. The trio is rounded out by mix man Geoff Barrow and guitarist Adrian Utley. Formed in 1991 upon a chance meeting of Barrow and Gibbons in Bristol, Portishead spent a few years blending talents and writing songs.
The resulting album was Dummy, the best album to date from the band. But when I say “best,” don’t get me wrong. I still do not particularly enjoy anything about Portishead. It is an impossibility for me to escape the piercing whinnying of Gibbons. Her voice resonates more painfully than dull fingernails on a chalkboard. Dummy proved that the band could have an audience with popular singles like Sour Times and Numb and eventually even landed on various Billboard charts stateside.
Portishead plodded along, soon recording and releasing their vile self-titled sophomore effort in 1997. Cowboys, All Mine and Western Eyes are the only even moderately bright spots on the album. Other tracks are on the whole extremely infuriating and incredibly annoying. The band has yet to release an official third album, though in 1998 they did give the world a somewhat more tender look into their world with live release PNYC.
But back to where it all started—with the first song from their first album, Sour Times. Even in all my seething ire of the band, I gave them another chance. The exceptionally long single came to me amongst a pile of free selections. I would have by no means purchased it. I am not into self-inflicted pain. After months of ignoring the disc, I finally gave it a chance—it couldn’t be any more painful than the band’s second LP, right?
Fortunately, yes. The January 1995 release Sour Times as a single includes a total of six songs. Leading things off is the hit single Sour Times followed by five non-album selections including instrumentals and remixes. Sour Times is without question the best song ever given to the world by Portishead. Gibbons wrangles in her oft out of control voice. The vocals when paired with drippy, dark, fantastic musical elements makes for a rather enjoyable musical experience. The band seems comfortable and easy going. This is a characteristic distinctly lacking from their later songs--Portishead seems best off when they aren’t trying to be unique.
But the Sour Time CD single makes a turn for the worse with the inclusion of most of the five other songs. I suppose these are certainly treasures to major fans of the band, but I hold grudges and Portishead long ago got on my bad side. Numbed in Moscow is excruciating. While I appreciate the covering of Gibbons by layers of fuzz and repetitive thumps, I cannot for the life of me come up with any rhyme or reason to the track. It wanders around aimlessly. The music itself lacks any particular direction and since I don’t like Gibbons on the whole, the song is particularly difficult to digest. It is, however, a remix of hit single Numb. Just a heck of a lot less interesting.
A Tribute To Monk & Canatella is also rather uninspiring. An entirely instrumental selection, it at least benefits from the omission of Gibbons. But with that said the track inexplicably wanders around. It is a free-flowing modern, electronica-jazz track. Worst of all, it has no particular beginning, middle or end. And since I don’t thing Portishead is particularly talented on the whole the song gets a big ol’ thumbs down from this pessimistic reviewer.
Moderately better is Lot More--a remix of Sour Times. The deconstructed, dark version features scratched records and a sharper melody. But it still proves an insurmountable challenge to appreciate the song. Portishead is not a band for me. Period. The oft-lauded Theme From “To Kill A Dead Man” is incredibly long, and extremely boring. I’ve forced myself to sit through the instrumentals but cannot figure out what the fuss is about. The track is over long, pretentious, self-important and in the end entirely forgettable.
Finally, Airbus Reconstruction turns slightly more toward “real” instruments and incorporates a much more overt guitar. This mix of Sour Times is modestly more pleasing than the rest of the single. I still cannot by any stretch of the imagination figure out exactly why Portishead has such a fervent following, but I can say that Airbus Reconstruction offers up occasional glimpses of possible appeal.
This Sour Times single is pretty much toss-away trash. It isn’t the most nauseating thing I’ve heard, but then again it also goes to show once again why trip-hop is a tricky genre. Done right, it is incredibly evocative and entertaining. But done wrong, by a trio of brooding, self-important Brits and all hell breaks lose. Sour Times is a fine enough single, but don’t search out this long out of print release.
Rating: 2/5 stars
Track Listing:
1. Sour Times
2. Numbed In Moscow
3. A Tribute To Monk & Canatella
4. Lot More
5. Theme From 'To Kill A Dead Man'
6. Airbus Reconstruction
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