Portishead’s Third is released tomorrow, and I can honestly say that I have yet to be this excited about any other release this year. And that’s just happened within the last few weeks, as more and more from the album has surfaced on various sites and blogs. And despite having heard the entire album several times, through various sources, and having watched numerous videos and live performances of the new material, the material on Third still feels as fresh as ever.

And I’m not the only one whose stoked. Every critic I’ve read so far has been beside themselves with praise.

All Music Guide

Third is resolutely not an album to be sampled in 30-second bites or to be heard on shuffle; a quick scan through the tracks will not give a sense of what it’s all about. It demands attention, requiring effort on the part of the listener, as this defies any conventions on what constitutes art pop apart from one key tenant, one that is often attempted yet rarely achieved: it offers music that is genuinely, startlingly original.

 

PopMatters

So, on their third studio album, Portishead have succeeded in striking the careful balance between progressing their sound to where it should be 11 years later and retaining the esoteric creepiness that makes them tick. I don’t hear much in the way of clear, winning singles, not like the first two albums, but that seems to work in the album’s favor. Third is a complete work of art to fully immerse yourself in, listened to start to finish. It will be a little awkward initially, like Garth’s feeling towards putting on new underwear. After a while, it will become a part of you. History will eventually see it rank on par with the rest of their legendary works.

 

Josh Hurst

Of course, music like this often takes on an otherworldly, even impersonal feel, but that’s another of Portishead’s glorious contradictions, more vividly on display than ever on Third; there’s an undeniable humanity to their music, partially because of the presence of familiar sounds and styles, but also due to singer Beth Gibbons’ tortured vocals and confessional songwriting. The music becomes a soundtrack for Gibbons’ peculiar brand of 21st century blues, as she gives voice to all the frustrations, all the rich mystery and dark beauty, of existence. And so even when the music is bleak—which it almost always is—there’s a sense of empathy lurking just beneath the dark shroud of gloom.

 

Treble

Portishead have created a truly remarkable album with Third. Some people had to practically invent a new genre for Portishead in 1994, and the band has again defied classification with this collection of songs, three years in the making and eleven years in the ether. At turns it will have you humming sweet melodies and at others leave you in a complete state of unease. But, more than anything, it will be like one of those hitchhiking ghosts, tagging along, alongside you for eternity, and you’re loving every minute of it.

 

I’ll be getting my copy soon, and hope to post some more thoughts of my own once I’ve had time to absorb Third—and be absorbed by it—more thoroughly.

Thanks to Overstreet for this tip: you can listen to Portishead’s Third, in its entirety, courtesy of Last.fm.

Meanwhile, AngryApe has this to say about the album:

Lets cut straight to it, has ‘Third’ been worth the eleven year wait? Well, yes, just about. ‘Third’ is a great record that, like Portishead’s previous outings, takes a dozen listens before you even begin to enjoy and understand how its beauty, complexity, subtleness and dense layers combine to create the mystifying whole you’re trying to deconstruct.

 

I’ve think I’ve listened to the entire album about twice now, thanks to various online outlets (e.g., Last.fm, MySpace), and I have a feeling that Third will be to 2008 what Scott Walker’s The Drift was to 2006. Granted, Third is quite a bit more accessible and listenable than The Drift in just about every way, but like The Drift, I have feeling that Third will cast a shadow that looms large over everything else I hear this year.

This is essentially Simon’s default expression, especially when his parents attempt to engage him in something “new and exciting”. Which just confirms that he is indeed his father’s son.

Photo by Mrs. Opus.

This is currently the Opus household’s favorite commercial:

And yet, even as it makes me choke up a little bit, I must confess that deep inside, I feel a twinge of guilt for enjoying it—and I blame Christian theology, or at least, a skewed version of it.

A good portion of Christians hold that this world is, at best, an inconvenience, a hurdle on our way to final glory. Sometime soon, when we least expect it, Christ is going to return, rapture all of us good believers out of the earth, and reduce this planet to little more than a cinder. Therefore, there’s little need to really care about this little blue gem of a world, and what’s done on or to it, or what happens to it in the long run. In other words, it’s not really all that “awesome” at all.

I might be exaggerating, but not by too much, I think. It’s a frightening idea, and critics of Christianity are right to throw up red flags concerning it. But what many don’t understand, be they Christian or no, is that this notion flies in the face of much that the Bible teaches. Namely, that God’s plan is redemption, not replacement, and that includes the world and the rest of creation. And what’s more, we humans are to play a pivotal role in said redemption.

Some folks look at the so-called “cultural mandate”, and take that little bit in Genesis 1:28 about “subduing” and “ruling” to mean that God has basically given us free reign over the earth, to do whatever we desire. Or, in the words of Anne Coulter, “God said, ‘Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It’s yours.’” (Which has to make you wonder why God—like any artist—would want a creation that He deemed “very good” to be mistreated or damaged at all.)

I would submit that words like “subdue” and “rule” are better understood within the context of stewardship rather than domination. God has placed us here to be stewards, to tend and take care of what He has created, to “harness the natural world” (to quote Nancy Pearcy). God has given us the raw materials of creation to shape as we see fit, but the guiding purpose is not our ease, comfort, and success, but rather, God’s glory.

Romans 8:18-25 has long been one of my favorite passages of Scripture because it so beautifully describes the extremes between which we humans find ourselves.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

 

We live between groaning and hope, between the pains and trials of our lives as they are right now, and the promise of glories to come (of which we sometimes get a foretaste). God has promised to redeem us—not remake or replace us, but to take us as we are, warts and all, and bring out of that something even better than we can imagine. And as the above passage illustrates, the same holds true for the rest of creation, which as Romans so poetically puts it, was subjected to frustration… in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

What this tells me is that God has not abandoned this “awesome” world, nor will He. Rather, His intention is to redeem this world, to redeem every facet of creation. All the way back in Genesis, He declared this world to be “very good”, which implies total satisfaction and pleasure.

As opposed to the notions that somehow seeped into my mind and soul as I grew up in Christian circles, I do not have to view this planet as a mere hindrance or hurdle, but as a home that I am meant to enjoy, understand, marvel at, beautify, and harness for the glory of God. I can call this world “awesome”, and truly mean it, because God has intended no less. Indeed, God Himself has done no less. This world, and all that is within it, is not meant for the trash heap, but for something more glorious than you or I can imagine.

And, to borrow a phrase from Tolkien, that is an encouraging thought.

Somehow, I completely missed this, but last month, Random House announced that A Dance with Dragons, the latest novel in George R. R. Martin’s epic A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series, will go on sale on September 30, 2008.

Here’s a brief synopsis:

In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance once again—beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has three times three thousand enemies, and many have set out to find her. Yet, as they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.

To the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stone—a structure only as strong as those guarding it. There, Jon Snow, 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, will face his greatest challenge yet. For he has powerful foes not only within the Watch but also beyond, in the land of the creatures of ice.

And from all corners, bitter conflicts soon reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all…

 

The whopping 1,008 page novel will pick up where 2005’s A Feast for Crows left off. A Feast for Crows threw some folks for a loop because it only contained about half of the characters and plotlines that had appeared in previous novels. Missing were such notables as Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, Davos, and Daenerys Targaryen.

Martin explained that, due to difficulties with the increasingly complex stories, it would’ve been too much to cram everything into a single novel, hence the split into A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons—and the three year wait.

Actually, it’ll have been about an eight month wait for me. I only started reading Martin’s series last year, when I picked up A Game Of Thrones while on vacation, and became so enraptured that I blew through the 800+ pages in about 4 days. Whatever the case, if A Dance with Dragons is anything like the previous novels, it’ll be well worth the wait.

35 minutes, 7 songs from the new album. What more do you need?

Update 4/28: Looks like the video has been taken down. However, I’m sure you can find clips on YouTube.

Christ and Pop Culture has recently become a favorite website of mine, and reviews like this one of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed by Carissa Smith, are a reason why. From the review:

Those who don’t recognize Ben Stein’s name will probably recognize his voice, best known for intoning “Bueller? ...Bueller?” in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. However, Stein has also been a speechwriter for Nixon and Ford and a conservative economics columnist. In his newest role as actor and co-writer in the documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, he uses Michael Moore-esque tactics to raise important questions about Intelligent Design, academic freedom, and the power of ideas. However, the movie can’t decide which of these Big Questions it’s about and ends up giving us flippant and/or irrelevant footage instead of deep inquiry.

...The most flawed—and yet most interesting and compelling—part of Expelled begins when Stein interviews a scientist (and atheist) who argues that Darwinism inevitably leads to the belief that there is no God and no life after death. This scientist said, proudly, that if his brain tumor recurred, rather than suffering and waiting to die, he would shoot himself in the head. It’s a heartbreaking scene, and it introduces the section in which Stein ponders whether the theories of evolution and natural selection lead to euthanasia, abortion—and, yes—the Holocaust.

I’m torn about this argument. On the one hand, I’m afraid that this kind of thinking (Hitler believed in Darwinism; therefore, Darwinism led to the Holocaust) is exactly the sort of logic [Richard] Dawkins and his kind use to argue that Christianity inevitably leads to the Inquisition. If Christians support this logic, it could come back to bite us in the backside.

 

Personally, I’m hesitant to see the film, precisely because of the issues that Smith—and other reviewers—have mentioned. I’m not a fan of Michael Moore-esque tactics even when Moore himself does them, and so I’m not so certain I should rush to see a movie that, from all appearances, employs them to make a point that many of my fellow Christians support.

I dislike throwing around the term “propaganda” because it’s so loaded and dangerous, but the more I see and hear about Expelled, the more the term seems to fit. And propaganda is never a good way to make a point, even if used to make a point that is—on the surface, at least—in-line with your beliefs.

The Intelligent Design/Evolution debate is a serious one, and as such, it requires clear discussion and communication, as well as grace and humility from both sides. I’d love to see a reasonable and gracious dialog between proponents of both theories, one that traded flag-waving and disdain for honest discussion. But I guess that’d be about as probable as a presidential candidate candidly talking about some skeleton in their closet.

Much like the Flying Spaghetti Monster meme of yore, I have a feeling that people will take from Expelled exactly what they bring into it. No minds will really be changed. Rather, I suspect that most folks will leave the film with their preconceptions and suspicions confirmed even more solidly, confident in their belief that they are absolutely right and that the other side are complete tools.

And all for the low, low price of a movie ticket.

Writ On Water’s latest album, A Wingless King, as well as the reissues of Pelléas and Sylph, are now available for purchase via Amazon MP3. The Greyest Day Sessions will be made available next month, but in the meantime, the band has made the track “Wicker” available for download from their homepage.

The band is still planning to release two additional EPs—Ancestral Echo and Wunderzeit—this year, likely in June or July. But in the band’s own words, they can’t seem to stop tinkering with them.