#2: "The Rip" - Portishead

There is such a thing as a weird coincidence. When the random number generator chose this particular song, I couldn’t help but react out loud. Reason being, it’s a song I’ve chosen to talk about on Patrick Ripoll’s upcoming podcast episode for Uptown Song Club. I have a playlist of about 800 favorite songs that I love to put on shuffle. Attempting to condense that list to about 260 songs was extremely difficult but there is a fairly set Top 20 of titles that I consider to be all-timers. This is one of them for reasons that will be difficult to put into words. Welcome to the first song review for the 50-Year Project!

I was using the elliptical at the gym a few months ago when I decided to randomly listen to Portishead’s Third record which I hadn’t listened to in a long time. I remember being surprised by how the band evolved, divorcing themselves a bit from the now-dated genre of trip-hop to bring us something different, weirder. I almost thought of it as their Kid-A because of the surprise factor though it’s clear that no one will ever sing like Beth Gibbons who has recently become my favorite vocalist alongside Jeff Buckley (a name that will come up often as I write about songs). 

It also makes sense that during a live performance of “The Rip,” the guitarist is seen holding a bow to glide on the strings - this song reminds me of Sigur Ros with how it sticks with the same progression throughout until it builds to a climax before quietly simmering down.

I love every single song on Third. Maybe it was the dopamine and adrenaline rush I got from working out while listening, but something dawned on me while listening - this is one of my favorite records of all time and even better than their first two. The fact that they haven’t made anything since is a bit of a shame but even if they never tour or record again, the fact that Third by Portishead exists is a reason to keep going. Garrett Kamps of The Village Voice called this particular song, "so good it may have been worth waiting 10 years for.”

“The Rip” stood out to me immediately because every time I listen, I want it to go on for 10 minutes rather than 4. There’s something about that chord progression that binds to my receptors. We start out with an acoustic guitar and a low synth hum that almost sounds like an e-bow or Theremin. There are plucks of keyboard that sometimes match the chord being played but on one occasion, creates a Major7 accompaniment that sounds off - but it’s not. In fact, nothing about this song feels off.

When it does eventually build to where different instrumentation takes over completely to where the guitar becomes a synthesizer, I feel goosebumps all over (I’ll probably say that a lot when writing about favorite songs). Welcoming light emerges in that second half with the advent of a krautrock-flavored beat and arpeggios derived from smooth syncopated analog ARP notes.

When the calming, consistent, heartbeat of a rhythm floats into view the song goes from beautiful to an absolute all timer. It becomes my version of spiritual meditation while listening even though I can't always make heads or tails of Beth’s lyrical content. There’s a sense of intimacy and distance being portrayed. Her delivery can sound like a whisper in your ear but yet so far away in a cavern-like physical space. But there’s a passage that does resonate and I’m so glad it reappears often.“Wild, white horses // They will take me away // And the tenderness I feel // Will send the dark underneath // Will I follow?”

The tenderness she sings of may lead to vulnerability but that’s a good thing. It could brush the depression under the rug or get lost in the undertow. But what happens when the horses take her away towards something good? Will she be open enough to experience the good? The darkness may be underneath but is it still there and perhaps due to past experience, she might follow that comfortable, albeit lonely place. Finding comfort in the dark recesses is what one might be used to, but we all want to transcend and let a force take us out of it in order to realize full enlightened potential.

I’m enraptured with everything about not just “The Rip” but Beth Gibbons as a singer in particular. The music is great, the lyrics do make an impression, but Gibbons is a voice that immediately seeps into me and that’s what creates such a sensual, inviting mood. She’s influenced by so many great singers of the past which makes complete sense. On those first two Portishead records, she could sound like Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Edith Piaf, Elizabeth Fraser and so many others from track to track. I can’t get enough of the effect she has on me. I could easily see Thom Yorke or yes, the late Jeff Buckley taking on this song and doing amazing things with it. But Gibbons and company made this composition completely their own. It’s on my list of all-time favorite songs for a lot of reasons and isn’t going anywhere.

Due to the 63 comments that expound even further on its meaning, I of course have to include this as another link / resource to explore: 

Portishead - The Rip Lyrics | SongMeanings