Sour Times

by Portishead

Sour Times cover art
  • Type: Single
  • Released: 1 August 1994
  • Label: Go! Beat
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Length: 25:53
  • Community rating: 4.14/5 from 3 ratings

Album Notes & Community Reviews

Utilizing a prominent, dramatically mournful sample lifted from an obscure Lalo Schifrin spy soundtrack, 'Sour Times' perfectly encapsulates the cinematic gloom of Bristol trip-hop. Beth Gibbons' trembling vocal delivery explores themes of profound heartbreak and desperate, unreciprocated attachment. It served as a critical breakthrough for the group, blending hip-hop production techniques with the aesthetic of 1960s espionage thrillers.

Genres

Descriptors: atmospheric, sampling, downtempo, electronic, deconstructed

Tracklist

  1. Sour Times - Edit (3:27)
  2. Sour Sour Times (4:07)
  3. Sour Times - Lot More Mix (4:22)
  4. Sheared Times (4:19)
  5. Sour Times - Airbus Reconstruction (5:09)
  6. Theme From 'To Kill A Dead Man' (4:26)

Credits

  • Miles Showell - lacquer cut by
  • Adrian Utley - written-by
  • Beth Gibbons - written-by
  • Geoff Barrow - written-by

More from Portishead: full discography