"Sour Times"

Portishead
(Go Discs/London, 1994)

Will trip-hop even be remembered as a distinct genre in a couple of years, or will using hip-hop beats to go on dream-pop trips be just another one of rock's many facets? I'd bank on the latter, but when Portishead surfaced with this melancholy reverie, it really did sound revolutionary, even if you'd spent the last decade listening to the Cocteau Twins. Most trip-hop placed the emphasis on the hop; "Sour Times" is more about the sonic trips technology can take us on. Yet it sounds oddly traditional, like some torchsong classic beamed in from some future past.

-- Matt Ashare