The collaboration of studio whiz Geoff Barrow and singer Beth Gibbons, Dummy was made at the same time as a short film noir called "To Kill a Dead Man," and the same approach--gloomy, tormented, and wildly melodramatic--permeates the album. "Sour Times" (the hit in which Gibbons cries, again and again, "Nobody loves me, it's true") and the more cryptic "Glory Box" are the linchpins of the album, defining its sound: dark flashes of old soul and film music, dehumanized electronic bleeps, Gibbons emoting like she's consumed by shame, and a bass-and-beat pulse derived from the slow bump and grind of the Bristol scene that spawned Barrow's old collaborators, Massive Attack. --Douglas Wolk
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Review: 4.5 / 5.0
"One of the greatest dance/electronic albums ever"
"This album will consume you."
"Essential electronic album."
"The Towering Classic From the 90's"
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
One of the greatest dance/electronic albums ever:
"Trip-hop"? "Downtempo"? Although it is a dark record, between Beth Gibbons' tortured voice, Geoff Barrows' beats, scratches and samples, and Adrian Utleys' jazzy guitar: this album is pure sex. Don't believe me? Try it.
This album will consume you.:
The beats on this album are awesome, it's like they came through a rip in reality from an alter-universe. The lyrics are alright, they are too unhappy for my taste, Beth's voice is wonderful though.
Essential electronic album.:
What can be said that already hasn't been said? I don't think there's much. This must have REALLY seemed ground-breaking at the time: Backbeats that sometimes recall hip-hop elements and some real soaring, soulful vocals from Beth Gibbons. There's not a single bad song on here, and it's most famous for the awesome "Sour Times," which sounds at times like a James Bond theme with certain elements. Then there's "Numb" which is probably my favorite song on the album, real soulful vocals there. You get more... more info
The Towering Classic From the 90's:
What can I say that hasn't been said in other reviews? Well, for me this is the one essential trip-hop album. But it goes way beyond being a very successful pop or trip-hop disc. What Portishead established with Dummy was the recognition of the diverse musical roots of the trip-hop movement, filtered through an intensely modernistic lens. Out in 1994, it sounds like it was released yesterday. Let's briefly analyze "Glory Box," likely the most well-known track from this pervasively known disc. Glory Box... more info
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