REVIEW: PORTISHEAD - 3

When asked to critique his own music, Thurston Moore stated plainly that, had Sonic Youth split back in the day, and gotten back together now they'd be "making loads more money". The band reformation craze is still going strong.
Post Pixies, we've watched countless groups huddling back together, leaving there day-jobs behind, dusting off old nostalgia laced tunes for the summer masses(yet somewhere, Christ Novaselic grits his teeth and keeps on keepin on.). With th re-emergence of Portishead in the the midst of summer festivals this causes its most staunch fans(myself included) to raise suspicion.
Followed by the news of the reformation, came news of the new album which raised another question; could their near ten year awaited follow up to the gorgeously doom and gloom"Dummy" hold hold up at all? The answer is......yeah.
The choppy beat samples, the strings, Beths unmistakable vocals, are all here. And while her voice conjures less hyde than jeckyll this time, provoking her more angelic tone, the album maintains the same dark density as all previous efforts. My only complaint is that they didn't name the album Four, and just go ahead and acknowledge their Roseland Ballroom performance as an entity all its own.