I will argue that the previous two Portishead albums had no flow... in terms of being album-ny . I think what will be heard by the masses is a lack of comfortableness. This album is noisier and isn't like old school beat heavy trip hop. It shows a leap in creativity and change with the times.

The continuity with previous albums would be Portishead IS cinematic in single song storytelling. Thats heavy here. "The Rip" though...oh my god! Is a CLASSIC...it's an astonishingly beautiful song.... and well into 40 listens to the track i believe it's up there with being one the prettiest most well crafted...CLASSIC songs..EVER. It builds and then vears off into (upon first listen) unpredictable territory. It's NOT portishead, it's bright and shiny and even chewy synths, krautrock hypno trance loops... it's just out of this world. This album was WORTH the wait.... and IS indeed the "older brother" (as gibbons said) of the previous two. The Rip, and Silence (with it's abrupt "Soprano's" end) are worth it...

Threads is as close to old school PH as you'll get... but each track is like a short film. Atmospheric. Machine Gun is so Banshees. It hold's up.

It gets a 9.1