 |  | The best live electronic music album ever. |  |
I read a review for Third in the New Yorker, and I found out that this live album existed. I had to get it right away because the reviewer was basically saying that Third is great, but nothing can ever beat the Roseland NYC album.. I have to say that Roseland is genius and I am extremely sd to have missed out on it for so long. Roseland really is a masterpiece.
May 21, 2008 | | Never record ANYTHING in NYC again | |
One word: "Roads." What a mess the dimwitted NYC audience made of this song. Their stupid little clap-a-long and early applause ruin what really would have been one of the standout tracks on this album. Good news: no clapping on the DVD version! That said, I think most people will be happier with the DVD audio. Buy the DVD, and download "Sour Times" as this is the only performance that is really missing from the DVD.
January 24, 2008This is a masterpiece of contemporary music. PNYC is a very complex album, full of arrangements that goes to deep obsesive levels. No matter what kind of music do you really like. Everyone who cares about music should hear this album, and watch the dvd concert...many, many times. Pity i can't give them more than 5 stars.
September 11, 2007This CD was one of the best live albums I have ever purchased. The only thing that was bad was "7 months" was not on it even though it was performed.
August 14, 2007 | | 5 stars if not for the "Roads" clap-along | |
I remember listening to this album when it first came out, and it's aged pretty well, but for the turn-table bits. Those are an acquired taste. Overall, the Roseland recording improves on almost every song in their catalog -- an exceedingly rare feat for any band. The best you can usually expect is a clean recording, but Portishead goes much further by "re-imagining" each song with orchestral backing. And the results are such that you might find yourself mesmerized by songs that never did much for you before. And they don't screw up the songs that were already good, except perhaps for "Sour Times."
Unfortunately, the most beautiful song, "Roads," is marred by an enthusiastic audience clap-along. All throughout the album, you'll note that the audience is a surprisingly muted presence for a live album (muted in the mix phase, not in the raw audio, it sounds like). But they come out in cheerful force... to the aid of the most haunting and lonesome Portishead song I've ever heard. The incongruity doesn't recede with repeated listens, either. At least the band manages to drown these yahoos out during the peaks.
It makes me wonder if they had the audience on separate mikes and could release a version that doesn't include that part. Wishful thinking, though. If there was a chance that Portishead was still around and putting out more stuff, it wouldn't irk me so much. But this is all we got -- three albums, one of which is this live "greatest hits" recording. In other words, not much. (I don't count Glory Times because it's a remix album, and barely one at that.)
November 26, 2006More reviews at Amazon.com ...
(88 reviews)