Third

"I don't think the fondue society will be happy," Geoff Barrows confessed while working on 'Third'. In the '90s his band's pioneering trip-hop sound was so imitated that, watered down, it became the ubiquitous soundtrack to sophisticated suburban dinner parties.

So, for the first Portishead project in ten years, he wanted to try something new. Instead Barrows, Adrian Utley and Beth Gibbons created something as fresh and haunting and devastating and hypnotic and unique as their debut 'Dummy' was back in '94; for all the changes (and there are many) this is clearly a Portishead album.

Studio wizards Barrows and Utley may have employed different instrumentation for a darker, more malignant effect. But there's no mistaking the subtle layering of various sonic textures to create an otherworldly environment for Gibbons' shattered-heart vocals. Unchanged too are their restraint, painful attention to detail and ability to surprise — the latter spelled out right from the start.

Occasionally pausing for breath, opener 'Silence' slowly develops into a relentless chase — that stops without warning; with its violent staccato beat, the aptly named 'Machine Gun' reveals a previously unknown aggression; 'Deep Water' is an unlikely (but thankfully short) detour into blue-grass territory; and distraught closer 'Threads' packs more suspense in six minutes than 'Dummy' and its successor 'P' combined.

Even the flashes of familiarity are unxepected: 'The Rip' is the best song Goldfrapp never wrote, 'We Carry On' welds Nine Inch Nails guitars to a '70s mellotron motif and some goth influences circa 1985 for a new take on the retro dance of LCD Soundsystem, and the trippy 'Small' dusts off the psychedelic space rock of early Pink Floyd.

Throughout, Portishead's increased confidence is apparent. Seemingly reinvigorated by younger bands like Sigur Ros and Mogwai — or just by the decade off — the two musicians and their singer might be older but clearly aren't afraid to experiment further than before. Even if the fondue society don't approve.