Portishead 3 - some lyrics...

Well I've had my copy of Portishead 3 (aka Portishead - Third) for a couple of days now but I'm listening to it too much to have found time to work the lyrics out for myself. I don't know if the CD version has them printed inside and the download almost certainly doesn't. My vinyl copy certainly doesn't but I'll forgive it that!

Here are some courtesy of www.metrolyrics.com/third-album-portishead.html
I can't guarantee that they are complete or even correct but it is a start! If you know of others, or indeed more reliable ones then please add them in a comment or let me know otherwise.


Hunter

No-one said
We’d ever known each other
And new evidence is what we require
In this world.

I stand on the edge of a broken sky
And I will come down; don’t know why
And if I should fall, would you hold me?
Would you pass me by?
For you know I’d ask you for nothing
Just to wait for a while.

So confused
My thoughts are takin’ over
Unwanted, arising space me instead
Won’t let go.

I stand on the edge of a broken sky
And I will come down; don’t know why
And if I should fall, would you hold me?
Would you pass me by?
For you know I’d ask you for nothing
Just to wait for a while.


Magic Doors

I can't deny what I've become
I'm just emotionally undone
I can't deny I can with 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.

All the muse in myself
My desire I can't hide
No reason and I thought.

I can't divide they'll 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 felt that I don't wade
Into the gift of my mistake
Again, again I'm wrong, and I confess
All the muse in myself
My desire I can't hide,
No reason I thought.

All the muse in myself
My desire I can't hide,
No reason I thought.


Nylon Smile

I'd like to laugh at what you said
but I just can't find a smile
I wonder why you can't.
I struggle with myself
Hoping I might change a little,
Hoping that I might be
Someone I wanna be.

Looking out I wanna know someone might care
Looking out I want a reason to be there
'cause I don't know what I did to deserve you
I don't know what I'll do, without you.

Looking out I wanna know someway might clear
Looking out I want a reason to repair
'cause I don't know what I did to deserve you
I don't know what I'll do, without you

I can't see nothing good
and nothing is so bad
I've never had the chance to explain
Exactly what I meant.

I'd like to laugh at what you said
but I just can't find a smile
I wonder why you can't
I struggle with myself
Hoping I might change a little
Hoping that I might be
Someone I wanna be.

Looking out I wanna know someone might care
Looking out I want a reason to be there
'Cause I don't know what I did to deserve you
I don't know what I'll do, without you.

Looking out I wanna know some way might clear
Looking out I want a reason to repair
'Cause I don't know what I did to deserve you
I don't know what I'll do, without you.

I can't see nothing good
and nothing is so bad
I've never had the chance to explain
Exactly what I meant.

Portishead 3 again.

Unless what I'm seeing is in some way very wide of the mark this album is going to be one of the big surprises of 2008 and I can't think of another that has a groundswell of opinion in quite the way this album does.

Portishead 3

1. Silence – 4:59
2. Hunter – 3:57
3. Nylon Smile – 3:16
4. The Rip – 4:30
5. Plastic – 3:27
6. We Carry On – 6:27
7. Deep Water – 1:30
8. Machine Gun (Barrow/Gibbons) – 4:43
9. Small – 6:45
10. Magic Doors (Barrow/Gibbons/Baggott) – 3:32
11. Threads – 5:47

Unless indicated otherwise all tracks were written by Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons and Adrian Utley.
If any other newly released album is going to give Madonna's 'Hard Candy' a run for its money in the UK album chart this week surely this is it!
The single-sided 12" single 'Machine Gun' (14 April 2008) could be worth tracking down too as it is an amazing mix and there aren't that many copies around.

The lost and found souls... Portishead 3

On the face of it a studio album from a band that formed in 1991, and only the third including their ground-breaking first, Dummy, in 1994 might suggest a band that has reformed simply for the money. Given that this is Portishead such cynicism is best taken with a pinch of salt for the band are as ethereal and invisible as they are influential. They may have tasted fame, and possibly fortune too, but they do what they do, occasionally and only when it takes their fancy. Then again they invented what they do, so they choose to leave time between their dark and slightly disturbing trip-hop forays in which others can play catch-up. It is simply their choice but woe betide any that think they can beat Portishead at their own game, but eleven years is still an inordinate wait for a new Portishead album!

You can probably tell I'm looking forward to this release, due out on April 28 in the UK on both CD and vinyl (2 x 12" 33rpm), and it is true.

Portishead 3

Should you not already be aware of it then I highly recommend the 2002 album Out Of Season. The 21st century has seen a whole lot of seemingly improbable yet amazing collaborations and amongst them is Ballad Of The Broken Seas (Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, 2006), but this earlier one is equally remarkable.

Out of Season (2002) was Beth Gibbons gone mostly acoustic, which really shows what a good singer she is. It is a collaboration with "Rustin' Man", the alter ego of Paul Webb who was the bassist in 1980's band 'Talk Talk'. That this is true is testament to collaboration beyond the reasonably imaginable. Adrian Utley (also of Portishead) provides some guitar and production but this is not much like either band.
Does it work? You bet it does!
Is it more cheerful than Portishead? No, not really, and when very occasionally it leans towards the electronic that is especially true.