Third

Can an album really be a departure if it's the first thing a group's released in 11 years? It ideally would be for a genre-bound band turned brand name like Portishead: As much as there is to miss about the mid-late 1990s, the time for any trip-hop revival is far into the future, and picking up right where they left off in 1997 would make Portishead some kind of sad cipher coasting on the fumes of an exhausted trend-- something they've always been above. If the voice of Beth Gibbons wasn't so ingrained in the consciousness of a whole generation of indie kids, you could look at Third as a sort of re-debut; it posits that the sound of Portishead can actually exist even after the group excises every possible remnant of trip-hop from it.

So far this year, some of our favorites oldies -- see the Breeders, Portishead, and, of course, the B-52's -- have released new albums that more or less picked-up where they left off, updating the sound some, not losing steps in the process. They're obviously three very different bands, so doing a contrast/compare wouldn't make sense, but still, let's say it: Portishead win the "gloomiest comeback" of the year award. This a good thing. Very. The Bristol crew would flail ou t-of-water if they tried affixing any cheer. Atmospherically, lyrically, emotionally, Third is plenty fucking submerged, but it also has a newfound dynamic crest: You can't label it trip-hop like you would (and did) Dummy, and it's a rawer, rockier ride than Portishead. Beth, Geoff, and Adrian don't wait long before introducing us to the new angles.