#95 Dummy by Portishead
The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time
- 2025 Album Rank
- 95
- 2011 Album Rank
- 84
- Total Points
- 685.5
- Year Released
- 1995
- Billboard 200 Chart Peak
- 79
- Weeks at #1
- N/A
- RIAA Sales Certification
- 500,000 (Gold)
- Buy Album
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Dummy Album Details
Released on August 22, 1994, Dummy is the debut album from Bristol-based group Portishead and a landmark in the emergence of trip-hop. The album blends hip-hop beats, noirish atmosphere, analog synths, and haunting vocals into something cinematic and deeply melancholic. It was acclaimed for its originality and emotional intensity, with Beth Gibbons' voice sounding at once vintage and timeless, as if transmitted from a ghostly past.
The record owes as much to classic film soundtracks and jazz records as it does to turntablism and studio experimentation. Portishead's moody textures, scratchy loops, and off-kilter grooves created a deeply immersive sound that influenced countless acts that followed. Dummy won the Mercury Prize and became an underground sensation, setting a new benchmark for atmospheric, genre-defying production.
Interesting Facts about Dummy
- Portishead created many of the album's "samples" by recording their own compositions, pressing them to vinyl, and then sampling them with turntables to preserve the sonic grit of old records while maintaining control over publishing rights.
- "Numb", the first single, was accompanied by a surreal and haunting short film directed by the band, evoking Cold War paranoia and Lynchian visuals, an aesthetic that matched the album's brooding tone.
- The album was recorded largely in band member Geoff Barrow's home studio and produced with minimal gear, often just an Akai S950 sampler, an Atari sequencer, and a few vintage keyboards.
- "Roads", one of the most iconic and emotional songs on the album, was often performed live with sparse arrangements, sometimes featuring just voice and organ, highlighting its raw vulnerability.
- The eerie whine in "Wandering Star" comes from manipulated guitar feedback, an example of Portishead's use of distortion and analog decay to shape their sonic world.
- The group largely avoided touring initially, but when they did perform live, they rejected playback and recreated all samples and loops live with a full band, adding layers of tension and unpredictability.
- Despite the use of scratching and hip-hop elements, the band distanced itself from the "trip-hop" label, viewing their work as more indebted to Italian horror scores, John Barry, and Public Enemy than any particular genre.
- Early pressings of the album contained slightly different mixes of "It's a Fire". This track was not included on all international editions and was omitted entirely from the vinyl version in some countries.
- Beth Gibbons reportedly recorded some of her vocal takes in complete darkness to evoke a more internalized and emotionally exposed performance.
- The Mercury Prize win in 1995 surprised the band, who had remained largely underground and outside of the Britpop scene that dominated the UK press at the time.
- Alternate takes of "Sour Times" exist from the band's early Peel Sessions, showcasing a rawer, more urgent energy compared to the studio version. These recordings were eventually released on the Glory Times compilation.
- The distinctive visual style of the album, dark, grainy, blue-tinted photography, was maintained across their music videos, album art, and press materials, reinforcing the sense of a cohesive sonic and visual world.
Dummy Track List
- Mysterons
- Sour Times
- Strangers
- It Could Be Sweet
- Wandering Star
- Numb
- Roads
- Pedestal
- Biscuit
- Glory Box
