Going through a massive Portishead (specifically Third) phase and just wanted to share something quick to hopefully spur someone to listen to the album for the first time or maybe revisit it if they haven’t in a while.

“Threads” is the album closer and boy howdy does it leave things off on a sour note. Not only is there a creeping sense of dread throughout the whole song, spurred by a whining synthetic string note that hisses throughout, but also a spindly, purposefully inconspicuous guitar line that just sounds like someone standing around a corner, trying not to be noticed. Haunting horns moan out from crawl spaces, and Beth Gibbons sounds completely worn out until the end, where she confronts her ghostly antagonist, screaming “damned one”. It’s a clutching paranoia that fizzles out with a fog horn-like buzzing electronic, echoing into the dark night like a flood light.

The whole album is incredible. A mix of prog rock, experimental kraut rock, electronics, shades of Portishead’s previous trip hop sound, as well as many more sonic adventures. Nothing out there like it, that’s for sure.