Portishead Albums Ranked

Portishead is an English band formed in 1991 in Bristol. They are often considered one of the pioneers of trip-hop music. The band is named after the nearby town of the same name, eight miles west of Bristol, along the coast.[9] Portishead consists of Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons, and Adrian Utley, while sometimes citing a fourth member, Dave McDonald, an engineer on their first records. Their debut album, Dummy, was met with critical acclaim in 1994, quickly becoming a landmark album in the trip-hop genre. Two other studio albums have been issued: Portishead in 1997 and Third in 2008, both of which received similar acclaim. In 1998, the band released a concert album, Roseland NYC Live. Here are all of Portishead’s albums ranked.

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5. Glory Times (1995)

“While this is just a bunch of remixes, it’s actually quite good. It’s not something you listen to from start to ending very often, but the most of the songs work well on their own. While the songs don’t surpass the original material, stuff like Theme From to Kill a Dead Man makes it all worthwhile in the end.”

4. Roseland NYC Live (1998)

“The best Portishead album, the pinnacle of trip-hop as a genre, and if not the greatest live album of all time at the very least the finest capturing of what makes a band great at their peak (by a ‘studio’ band, not a live specialist like Phish). And certainly the best production and vocals of any live album I own. A vital, essential document.”

3. Portishead (1997)

“This must be one of my all-time favorites. The dark current that lurked just beneath the surface of Dummy is put on full display here. Beth’s vocals drip with anger, despair, and some sort of nihilistic glee. The jazz-focused samples are generally more aggressive than those on Dummy, and gone is the fuzzy warmth of that album, replaced with a harsh and jagged edge; the vinyl hiss here is razor sharp, and it only reinforces the hopeless tone of the album. A dark sense of joy pervades Portishead, but it’s important to realize it is indeed a dark joy; the kind of euphoria that must come with falling for so long that you eventually learn to embrace it. Completely and utterly essential.”

2. Third (2008)

“I remember initially disliking Third because I compared this to its contemporaries and even their past records. However, I found myself coming back to this record since something always kept me captivated until the end. Around this time, I realized there’s something about Beth’s vocals sounding terrifying to me, accompanied with some of the most painfully evocative lyrics I have heard in my life. Perhaps, as cliché as it sounds, the reasons why you may dislike Third are the reasons why I like it now. It’s truly a grower and some of the most haunting music I have come across.”

1. Dummy (1994)

“Chilling, and not in a good way. Imagine if J.G. Ballard and Dusty Springfield had tried to make a dance record together. This would be that record. A truer and braver depiction of England in the mid 1990s than the thuggish Britpop of Oasis.”