Music : Dummy
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0007464395932
Label: Polygram Records
Manufacturer: Polygram Records
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Polygram Records
Release Date: October 17, 1994
Sales Rank: 1093
Studio: Polygram Records
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
The collaboration of studio whiz Geoff Barrow and singer Beth Gibbons, Dummy was made at the same time as a short film noir called "To Kill a Dead Man," and the same approach--gloomy, tormented, and wildly melodramatic--permeates the album. "Sour Times" (the hit in which Gibbons cries, again and again, "Nobody loves me, it's true") and the more cryptic "Glory Box" are the linchpins of the album, defining its sound: dark flashes of old soul and film music, dehumanized electronic bleeps, Gibbons emoting like she's consumed by shame, and a bass-and-beat pulse derived from the slow bump and grind of the Bristol scene that spawned Barrow's old collaborators, Massive Attack. --Douglas Wolk
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
"Trip-hop"? "Downtempo"? Although it is a dark record, between Beth Gibbons' tortured voice, Geoff Barrows' beats, scratches and samples, and Adrian Utleys' jazzy guitar: this album is pure sex.
Don't believe me? Try it.
Rating: -
What can be said that already hasn't been said? I don't think there's much. This must have REALLY seemed ground-breaking at the time: Backbeats that sometimes recall hip-hop elements and some real soaring, soulful vocals from Beth Gibbons. There's not a single bad song on here, and it's most famous for the awesome "Sour Times," which sounds at times like a James Bond theme with certain elements. Then there's "Numb" which is probably my favorite song on the album, real soulful vocals there. You get more blues-rockin' moments like on the record's closer "Glory Box." There's occasional samples which rule and sound neat like everything else. If you haven't heard "Dummy" yet you are in for a real treat. Pretty much everyone who owns it can tell you that it's well worth the hype. It is beautiful and proves electronic music CAN BE full of emotion. Even today, it doesn't sound dated at all. I like the follow-up album too, but advise this as your start.
Rating: -
What can I say that hasn't been said in other reviews? Well, for me this is the one essential trip-hop album. But it goes way beyond being a very successful pop or trip-hop disc. What Portishead established with Dummy was the recognition of the diverse musical roots of the trip-hop movement, filtered through an intensely modernistic lens. Out in 1994, it sounds like it was released yesterday.
Let's briefly analyze "Glory Box," likely the most well-known track from this pervasively known disc. Glory Box begins with that unmistakeable descending bass line, which basically has the same resonance to 25-40 year olds that John Coltrane's "Tunji" or "Equinox" did to the baby Boomer generation. A repeating series of chords in F sharp, Glory Box is a gutbucket blues tune transposed to Gen X values, dripping with film noir nightclub atmosphere, the type of song that could be successfully played for any age group from Greatest Generation to Silent Generation, to Baby Boom to millennials. This song has that kind of universality. It's also a great instrumental blowing tune.
Moving on to another harmonically interesting tune, "Roads" has even more of the old jazz feel, with a roomy series of chord progressions in F Major. You can imagine an orchid in Beth Gibbons' hair as she sings the bridge. On this track and on this disc, Adrian Maben makes extremely tasteful use of the oft-abused wah pedal, and proves to be Gibbon's ideal running mate in this classic album.
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Rating: -
This is almost the perfect album. I bought this recently having listened to it years ago and it was like finding an old classical watch or something. It moved me. The hits are great of course- 'Sour Times' and 'Glory Box'. Songs like this just want you to run out and open a lounge with a blue light or something! Then there is the absolute gem in "It's a Fire' with that wonderful bass running through as her voice weaves between the notes. This album is a beautiful moment in time.
Rating:  -
First, this is a phenomenal album, it creates an amazing atmosphere that feels both new and familiar. However, I gotta say that I prefer the live album PNYC(the dvd is even better.) Aside from the wonder of seeing the band and orchestra deliver an amazingly on-point performance, the interplay between the musicians (as opposed to the loops on the album) makes the songs really come alive. Anyway, Dummy is a great album nonetheless, and if you are coming at Portishead from an electronic, hip-hop or dance angle, then you will probably prefer this to PNYC. But if you're more into jazz, rock or classical than I advise to check out PNYC first.
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