Classic Album Review: Portishead - Dummy (1994)

Emerging from the short-lived early Nineties “trip hop” boom, Portishead have their own unique sound, and the band’s debut album, Dummy, sounds as fresh today as it did at the time of its release back in 1994.

Combining elements of hip hop and jazz, with a laidback and somewhat distinctive approach to synthpop, Portishead’s most immediately identifiable feature is the voice of lead singer Beth Gibbons. Fragile, haunting, and strangely seductive, Gibbons’ vocals stood out like a fluorescent beacon in a vast sea of pre-Britpop mediocrity, and Dummy’s huge success was in no small way attributable to the way Gibbons interpreted the light-on-structure but nonetheless compelling material she had to work with.   

After a decade of inactivity, Portishead made a formidable comeback in 2008 with the belated release of a third album, the critically-acclaimed and aptly-titled Third, which went some way towards restoring the band to its former heights. However, the innovative Dummy set the benchmark, not only for these guys as a unit, but also for a host of other so-called trip hop wannabes seeking to emulate Portishead’s success - and that of Massive Attack - at the time.

Few succeeded, and commercially at least, the sub-genre faded into obscurity, or perhaps it is fairer to say it was swallowed up by a relentless bombardment of Britpop and the crossing over of in-yer-face high-bpm techno. Or maybe it simply morphed into the ubiquitous “chill-out” genre, who can really say? Given that neither Portishead nor Massive Attack have been especially prolific, it is hardly surprising there have been long periods without any persuasive points of reference.

Six (of eleven tracks) download essentials: ‘Sour Times’, ‘Wandering Star’, ‘It’s A Fire’, ‘Numb’, ‘Roads’, and the fantastic closer, ‘Glory Box’.