Nirvana vs. Portishead

These are two bands that were very big in the 90s that each only released three studio albums and various live albums.

Nirvana (studio albums):
Bleach (1989)
Nevermind (1991)
In Utero (1993)

And a notable live album is MTV Unplugged in New York (1994)

Portishead (studio albums):
Dummy (1994)
Portishead (1997)
Third (2008)

And a notable live album is Roseland NYC Live (1998)

I like Nirvana, but I love Portishead. Dummy was the first album I got into, and then I heard the self-titled which I liked, and Third was instant love (my fave for quite a while), and then last night I listened to the self-titled and really loved it.   I haven't heard all three Nirvana albums in full.

On a side-note, Les Revenants (The Returned) was one of my favourite TV shows of the past decade, and Mogwai did the soundtrack. Mogwai's The Hut (which is a theme that comes up various times in the series) sounds so similar to the earlier Portishead track, Over.





Maybe not surprising that I love the Portishead albums and Mogwai's soundtrack.

Edited by Logan - May 26 2022 at 16:24

I have a great love for the mass of music that came out of Seattle in the late ‘80s and early ‘90#, and have a considerable chunk of it in my cd collection, but Nirvana never did it for me, I hones,T have never really been sure why, but I just never really liked them, apart from maybe the odd song or two from their Unplugged album (and, yes, their Bowie cover was one of those one or two).

Interesting, I thought this would be closer. 7 to one in the votes, one shan't, and every post favouring a band is favouring Portishead. I know the second vote cast was for Nirvana, which had followed my vote for Portishead.

Like some others, it really is no contest for me either, although I like various Nirvana -- not to be confused with the Nirvana we have in PA in Proto-Prog. Along with Stereolab, Pram, Broadcast, Swans, Boards of Canada, Air, Current 93 and some others, it's a favourite of mine that I got into for 90s albums/ music. Actually, I got into 2004's Talkie Walkie by Air a little earlier than 1998's Moon Safari.

While I heard various grunge on the radio and noticed its effect, I pretty much missed that scene. I think I was just a little old for it as I was already into my 20s when it became prominent and smelled more like spleen spirits than teen spirit. I guess of the major grunge acts I knew, I liked Soundgarden the most.

I would have loved to see Portishead in concert, maybe there still be that chance. I just missed out on seeing Stereolab in concert a few years ago.

By the way, I thought of this topic because I was thinking that it is such a shame that Portishead released so few albums (plus they released some singles after Third that I like) and so I started thinking about some others with only the three studio albums. Nick Drake was the first to come to my mind, and Drake would have been an interesting one perhaps to compare to Kurt Cobain, but that topic could be more morbid than I would like.

Edited by Logan - May 27 2022 at 04:51

Cristi wrote: Logan wrote: Interesting, I thought this would be closer. 7 to one in the votes, one shan't, and every post favouring a band is favouring Portishead. I know the second vote cast was for Nirvana, which had followed my vote for Portishead. Nirvana was overexposed and overplayed back in the day, you couldn't escape them, wherever you lived. Obviously people got tired of them, I know I did.

I remember Dummy that way, but I got over it:) I suppose it depends whether you grew up in wonderland or Tomorrowland.


Edited by Saperlipopette! - May 27 2022 at 06:03

Saperlipopette! wrote: Cristi wrote: Logan wrote: Interesting, I thought this would be closer. 7 to one in the votes, one shan't, and every post favouring a band is favouring Portishead. I know the second vote cast was for Nirvana, which had followed my vote for Portishead. Nirvana was overexposed and overplayed back in the day, you couldn't escape them, wherever you lived. Obviously people got tired of them, I know I did.  I remember Dummy that way, but I got over it:) I suppose it depends whether you grew up in wonderland or Tomorrowland.

As I live only a few hours drive from Seattle, I might have been expected to notice the whole Grunge scene and Nirvana more, but I spent part of the 90s working in Japan (md 90s. and post-Nirvana). Aside from the Japanese music I heard there, I was hearing more quirky pop things like The Cardigans and Bjork. I was exposed to Portishead in part because I was quite into the club scene in the 90s here in Vancouver, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I really got into Portishead, which was due to listening to a 90s late night radio sketch comedy plus music program -- it (Blue Jam) also got me into Stereolab and various "boozy-woozy" music.

That said, for the middle-aged and up I would think for many that it would have been enough time to get over that over-saturation to return to, and appreciate or re-appreciate the music and re-evaluate the music. Nirvana is considered a classic and still important and relevant by many. And I would expect that some of the younger generations would have discovered it without the baggage of having been overexposed to it at the time. And then of course it is one thing to hear the radio "hits" and another to really listen to the albums. Anyway, I have noted a significant amount of appreciation for Nirvana's music over my years here.

Lewian wrote: I like and respect Portishead, but Nirvana had a much more direct impact on me. Great band, and their music for me hasn't aged at all. A side in me wants aggressive music, but most of the bands who do such music miss me for one reason or another. Nirvana is one of the few who really get me (others are Killing Joke and Kong). In our own music we even nicked some bits of Smells Like Teen Spirit and put them into something proggy at the time. Top quality pairing, I've got to say.

Grungy or not, the music smelled fresh (like teen spirit) at the time and still smells fresh to me now. I like Killing Joke; haven't heard much Kong.

^ From cover song to cover song: This is Portishead covering ABBA's SOS (I prefer it to the original, and I like ABBA).



Edited by Logan - May 27 2022 at 08:20

Rather hard to make a choice, both are not part of my regular daily listenings
Two different styles imho.
Think I still got Portishead first couple of CDs near Nir ;-) vana unplugged.