Dummy

"Mysterons" opens with an chilly, ghostly air, followed by the exotic despair of "Sour Times" and the jazzy, eerie "Strangers" and "Wandering Star." Portishead delves into pure trip-hop in the pulsing "It Could Be Sweet" and "Numb," then synthesizes strings and stately organ in "It's A Fire," before wrapping things up with the steady lament "Glory Box," with its undulating riffs.

A noir feel permeates "Dummy," giving a grounded feel to the spacier edges of the music. It's easy to imagine trenchcoats, smoky offices, rainy days and femme fatales set to this music. It's soaked in melancholy and dreamy depression, set to music.

The blend of lounge music and trip-hop could have been awkward, but it blends seamlessly. The Rhodes and magnificent Hammond organ are the core of the silky unearthly sound, adding an epic feel to many of the songs. At the same time, the flexible guitar riffs and jazzy percussion bring it down to earth. And the Hammond does double-time as a jazz instrument as well, even when paired with strings.

Beth Gibbons's vocals are outstanding: high and clear and sweet, except in "Strangers," where she sounds like her voice is being filtered through an old radio. She pours plenty of emotion into the despairing lyrics. The songs themselves are simple and evocative, with loneliness and regret dripping from them. ("The salvation I desire/Keeps getting me down")

Jazz and trip-hop blend seamlessly into the beautiful haunting whole that is "Dummy." A beautiful experience, and one of the best albums of the 1990s.

While most trip-hop strives to sound dark and downtempo, Dummy is the only trip-hop album that feels like it could be incorporated seamlessly into a '40s noir flick while sounding perfectly distinctive on its own. There are traces of jazz, hip-hop scratches and beats, acoustic guitar flourishes, chiming percussion, and some clever, low-key sampling. Sometimes the crackly sounds and pops of an old 45 can be heard. It establishes a perfect atmosphere, one in which smoking a filterless cigarette and wearing a trenchcoat would not be out of place; and I haven't even begun to describe the vocals yet.

Beth Gibbons' melancholic wail just oozes soul out of every pore; on the hit single, the James Bond-esque Sour Times her sorrowful voice runs a chill up my spine. In other songs like Glory Box, she recalls the stylings of Billy Holiday, and on It Could Be Sweet her smoky, low-key singing is downright sexy. Overall, Gibbons is one of the finest voices in trip-hop, up there with contemporaries Elizabeth Fraser and Tracy Thorn.

There's not a single out-of-place track here, just an excellent unified sense of moodiness and sorrow, not feeling too bleak but not insincere either. If you've come looking for the perfect music for rolling down the sparsely populated city streets in the rain at 3 am--you've just found it. Dummy is absolutely essential.