Though the stereotype of musicians slaving away for years in isolation, perfecting their latest opus piece by piece, has firmly hardened into our collective consciousness by years of waiting for new Radiohead and Bob Dylan albums, some bands are starting to push it a bit too far. Take Portishead, the English trio who became the first trip-hop band to establish a significant commercial presence around the world, and the 11 years they took between their self-titled second release and this, their appropriately titled Third. An unlikely breakthrough band in the mid-‘90s with their icy cool mix of somberly wounded vocals, crackling samples and darkly mangled hip-hop beats creating a singularly penetrating sonic identity, they simply vanished after their last tour in 1998. After a decade in the wilderness, during which they started families, made side-project albums and produced other artists, ...