The collaboration of studio whiz Geoff Barrow and singer Beth Gibbons, Dummy was made at the same time as a short film noir called "To Kill a Dead Man," and the same approach--gloomy, tormented, and wildly melodramatic--permeates the album. "Sour Times" (the hit in which Gibbons cries, again and again, "Nobody loves me, it's true") and the more cryptic "Glory Box" are the linchpins of the album, defining its sound: dark flashes of old soul and film music, dehumanized electronic bleeps, Gibbons emoting like she's consumed by shame, and a bass-and-beat pulse derived from the slow bump and grind of the Bristol scene that spawned Barrow's old collaborators, Massive Attack. --Douglas Wolk

uuid:	2593E360-D01B-46FF-B83C-311C4C40079C
upc:	0042282855329
tracklisting:	Mysterons Sour Times Strangers It Could Be Sweet Wandering Star It's A Fire Numb Roads Pedestal Biscuit Glory Box
title:	Dummy
rating:	4
purchase date:	09-05-2005
published:	17-10-1994
price:	$13.98
net Rating:	4.5
last lookup time:	137383520
genre:	Trip-Hop Adult Alternative
fullTitle:	Dummy
currentValue:	$7.00
created:	137383520
country:	us
aspect:	Audio CD
asin:	B000001FI7
artist:	Portishead