Can I just say, at the risk of alienating the few readers I have here, that with all the excitement that's been building about the new Portishead album, I gave the first two records a relisten last week and found them, um, laughable? Did these shabbily pieced together hunks of melodrama actually impress people? Do they still? If I had to describe them in one sentence, I'd say they sound like a James Bond soundtrack played at 16 rpm, and Beth Gibbons sounds like Shirley Bassey on ludes. A My Bloody Valentine or a Breeders reunion I can get behind. But this?