Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1994


Sour Times

Buy Sour Times now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




{{Infobox song

| name = Sour Times

| cover = SourTimes.jpg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = Portishead

| album = Dummy

| released = 1 August 1994

| recorded = 1994

| studio =

| genre =

| length = 4:14

| label =

| writer =

| producer =

| prev_title = Numb

| prev_year = 1994

| next_title = Glory Box

| next_year = 1995

}}

"'Sour Times'" is a song by English trip hop group Portishead, from their debut album, 'Dummy' (1994). It was written by all three members of the band. It was released by Go! Beat Records in 1994 as a CD single, accompanied by three bonus tracks: "It's a Fire", "Pedestal", and "Theme from 'To Kill a Dead Man'".[https://www.vinyltap.co.uk/sour-times Portishead Sour Times UK Cd]. Vinyl Tap. Retrieved 16 October 2018. 'NME' ranked it number 32 in their list of the 50 best songs of 1994. 'Slant Magazine' placed it at number 77 in their ranking of "The 100 Best Singles of the 1990s" in 2011.

Composition



The song uses a sample from Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin's "Danube Incident", from the 1967 album, 'More Mission: Impossible'. Portishead sped up the sample to a desired tempo which took Schifrin's arrangement up nearly a semitone, giving the song a dissonant kind of "hip-hop tuning.

Critical reception



Music writer James Masterton wrote, "Its the kind of gloriously understated piece of melancholia that is normally supposed to appeal to students but is actually far too good to be wasted solely on that market." Alan Jones from 'Music Week' rated the song four out of five. He added, "Their first single, Numb, was a non-starter, but Portishead make a quantum jump with this single. This is a melancholy, wistful and worthy successor to the widescreen meanderings of fellow Bristolians Massive Attack, with a soulful vocal and tense backing track that evokes Bond movies and spaghetti westerns in equal measure. A spinechiller, and a hit." Another editor, Andy Beevers stated, "Hot on the heels of their critically acclaimed Numb, the Bristol duo are re-releasing this single which first appeared as a very limited self-financed white label several months back. It is another moody downbeat tune featuring melancholy vocals, although it is a less leftfield and more complete song than Numb." James Hamilton from the magazine's 'RM' Dance Update deemed it a "tremulous gentle girl sighed doodling atmospheric 'Twin Peaks'/'From Russia With Love'-ish 94bpm pop swayer".

Music video



The accompanying music video for "Sour Times" is made of footage from Portishead's short film 'To Kill a Dead Man'. It was directed by Alexander Hemming.

Release



"Sour Times" was released as the second single from 'Dummy' on 1 August 1994. It initially reached only number 57 in the UK Singles Chart, but after the success of "Glory Box" in 1995, it was re-released and peaked at number 13 in April. It is also the band's only song to date to appear on the 'Billboard' Hot 100 chart, at number 53. "Sour Times" was the band's first entry on the Australian ARIA top 100 singles chart, peaking at number 66 in March 1995. The B-side track "Airbus Reconstruction" was actually recorded by the band Airbus, who were former school friends of Geoff Barrow.

Legacy



The Blank Theory covered "Sour Times" on their 'Beyond the Calm of the Corridor' release, which was featured in the trailer for 'Wicker Park'.

"Sour Times" was used as the theme music to the ITV drama series 'The Vice', and also appeared in the film 'Killing Time' and TV shows 'Warehouse 13' and 'The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story'.

The song was sampled in the 2004 single "Teardrops" by The 411.

The name of Turkish social network "Eki Szlk (Sour Dictionary)" was derived from "Sour Times". This network was founded as a part of sourtimes.org in 1999.

English singer Marsha Ambrosius covered the song on her 2011 album Late Nights & Early Mornings.

Track listing



* 'CD 1'

#"Sour Times" (4'14)

#"It's a Fire" (3'47)

#"Pedestal" (3'41)

#"Theme from 'To Kill a Dead Man'" (4'25)

Tracks 1-3: from the album 'Dummy'

* 'CD 2'

#"Sour Times" (edit) (3'25)

#"Sour Sour Times" (5'49)

#"Lot More" (4'21)

#"Sheared Times" (4'03)

#"Airbus Reconstruction" (5'08)

Although they bear new titles, all tracks on CD 2 are remixes of Sour Times

Charts



Certifications



References




Buy Sour Times now from Amazon

<-- Return to songs from 1994



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1108801086.