Dummy

Description

In the UK, a dummy isnt just a mannequin or an idiot; its also what Americans would call a pacifier. Savor the irony in the title of Portisheads debut album. The album may suggest coziness, sonic swaddling, the gentle soundtrack to a ravers comedownand in 1994, ravers were plenty familiar with pacifiers. But Dummy doesnt coddle, it unsettles. It tastes not like warm milk but coppery and bitter, like blood. Despite its two-plus decades spent soundtracking makeout sessions, it cradles a terrible loneliness in its heart. Despite its reputation as dinner-party music, it is straight-up discomfort food: curl-up-and-die music, head-under-the-covers music. Its dark, dank, and quintessentially Bristol, mingling a chilling harbor fog with the resin of a thousand spliffs left to burn down in a haze.