Sure, he's great at using a 909, but he's already progressed past the music he's made with Closer, and much of the time it feels like falling back on old habit for lack of new ideas.

Just the right mixture of sonics.

One of the better British rock discs that I've heard in awhile.

Sure, the group can rock out at moments, but the majority of the 11 tracks on this release just feel warmed-over. They feel like they've been reworked countless times to make them better (and they have), but instead of actually making the tracks better, the life and vitality was sucked out of them.

Despite having a lot in common with their first disc, there are some slight variations in sound that make Chutes Too Narrow even better than its predecessor.

The Lemon Of Pink is built in much the same way that its predecessor was, and while it conjures up similar feelings at times, it also takes off in different directions entirely with the addition of actual vocals.

With the field recordings, the release at times resembles the more sublime moments of Set Fire To Flames, but with more strings and a slightly less bleak sound.

Easily the best work that the group has done.

The release has a great sense of humor, and the entire thing is scattered with those weird little samples that he's so good at finding, but if you're looking for much more than that, you may find yourself disappointed.

While it indeed works wonders in most places, it stumbles in a few, crossing over into an almost sickenly sweet radio-friendly territory that make me doubly wish for new Portishead material.

If you're curious about the group but haven't taken a chance on them yet, this is the perfect album to start.

When they're on, though, they're on, and although this album doesn't quite reach the heights that their earlier At Dawn does, it's still a great disc from a young group who will be making even more noise in the future.

Easily the least indulgent of the releases for the group thus far.

Clever without being pretentious.

The one-two punch of "Blue Lights" and "Chemical, Chemical" will be making year-end mix CDs like crazy.

Like all pop music that treads so close to the overly-sappy line, the release stumbles only when it moves a little too close to adult contemporary. Fortunately, it only does that a couple of times.

All in all, the release probably would have worked better as an extended EP instead of nearly an hourlength rumination on one track and ideas that spawned from it.

Although the music of the group has taken quite a few strides forward, it is also once again the voice of Trish Keenan that holds everything together.

If you're fan of the previous work of Pole, tread gently (and skip the EPs and head directly for the album), but if you're looking to just start out with some of his work, head for his earlier releases.

An excellent instrumental rock disc with plenty of things thrown in the mix to keep things interesting.

For a debut, it's a remarkabley inventive and interesting release.

While everything on the release is technically put together well and even sometimes compelling (the two album-opening tracks work about the best), most of the time things feel like they've been written specifically for the person who's singing them.

Several of the shorter tracks feel like little more than filler.

It's a bit harsh of me to say that there's nothing interesting going on in Player, Player because that's certainly not the case. Instead, the problem seems to be with contructing the songs themselves.

It doesn't travel any really adventurous ground, but it's a solid little entry for hot weather.

Easily the crowning achievement of their short lifespan thus far.

There's a lot of the year to go still, but this one's going to be hard to beat.

It's mostly inventive and catchy as hell.... That is, to say, if you don't mind the nearly ever-present vocals of Lafata.