Editor Reviews:

Album Details:
ENHANCED CD VERSION.

Amazon.com:
Usually, groups wait until they've released at least three or four records before putting out a live album, but PNYC was too good an idea for Portishead to turn down. Recorded with a full orchestra on a cold, rainy day shortly after the release of their second record, Portishead, the project doubled as a live album and the soundtrack for a BBC documentary. In addition to being economical and perhaps lucrative, the disc demonstrates how sampled and sequenced music can be re-created in concert without losing any of the charm or dynamics of the original recordings. All it takes is a 22-piece string section, some horns, and a band whose tightness is exceeded only by its creativity. At times the performances on PNYC sound even more breathtaking and cinematic than Portishead's original recordings, as humming theremin, skittery scratching, and gliding strings mingle with stealthy guitar lines and sultry vocals. For Portishead, sour times seem like a distant memory. --Jon Wiederhorn

Rating : - Surpasses their studio recordings
Hot on the heels of two acclaimed studio albums, the trio of Geoff Barrow, Adrian Utley and singer Beth Gibbons toured the United States and in doing so worked with an orchestra and horns for a live release.

It is often thought that electronic music is difficult to capture outside a studio, but "Live: Roseland NYC" is at the very least an exception. Whilst many critics have said Portishead's releases are too similar to each other, a good listen to "Live: Roseland NYC" with reveal a great many surprises about how Portishead adapt their songs to a concert setting. Contrary to what some might expect all the samples of their studio work are present, notably on "Only You" where they are used to create a crescendo effect in the middle of the song.

The strings add a great deal of melody to the songs compared to the stripped-down versions seen on their second album, but what is really surprising and overlooked in the much greater range of Beth Gibbons' voice found in the live setting. At the end of the dark "Sour Times" her voice - so restrined in the studio version - turns into an absolute growl that might put off some fans, but is as impressive as anything Bjork could ever manage. The quiet-to-loud dynamic of "Over" is similar in its effect, notably when Beth sings "recognise me any more" in an angry tone. On the other side, "Half Day Closing" is quite remarkably eerie and out-does any post-rock band. The opening tracks, "Cowboys" and "All Mine", and the earlier "Roads" are more akin to the studio versions but their powerful beauty is so unlike most pop music that it always captures the attention of someone weaned on the commercial music of the eighties.

All in all, "Live: Roseland NYC" is the most essential release from Portishead and one of the very best albums of the 1990s. The material is played in a subtly but genuinely darker, moodier, more intense yet more wistful tone than in the studio, and the accompanying orchestra is completely part of the songs as they are arranged. The cover, too, which reminds me of a school orchestra as I once played wihtout success in, is very fitting.