A decade is a long time to mull over a record, and a long time to wait for one. As fans who'd long given up on hearing anything new from Portishead get their first skeptical listen of the suddenly real Third the reactions are bound to bipolar.
There's no way for us to know how many permutations and evolutionary levels these songs have gone through, no signposts to guide us through the new wrinkles in noir songwriting. As far as we know, it emerged directly from Geoff Barrow's forehead clad for battle. "The Rip" doesn't sound like a fighter, especially not at first. The backdrop is gently strummed strings that are more organic than we might have expected from the former sample wranglers.
When Beth Gibbons enters, it can't not sound like Portishead though. Her despondant wail continues to be the band's signature element. The pastoral soundtrack here calms her nerves some. She even stays calm throughout a mid-song seismic shift. The warm human playing suddenly morphs into fat retro-futuristic synth tones that are actually pretty inviting themselves. The repeated lines "...white horses, they will take me away/ and the tenderness I feel/ will send the dark underneath..." transform from apprehensive daydream to confident assurance with the added rhythmic thrust. On a comeback record full of surprising new facets for the band, the room for a bit of modest optimism is not least among them.
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I was really hoping they'd ditch all the mopey dopey stuff and go with some HiNRG dance shizz. But this is good too. I think the reason why this band was so much better than a lot of bands that sorta sounded like them at the time is because they had a real commitment to songs and song structure. And that seems pretty evident here.