Portishead, "Sour Times" (FFRR). The ghost of Billie Holiday's pop-tart stepsister floats into a Buenos Aires tourist dive where some wayward B-boy cuts up a James Bond film score with his left hand and mixes a sidecar with his right. She starts to croon, "Nobody loves me / Not like you do," and history chokes on its given name. Figures it would take two pale British hip-hop heads to finally dream up some modern lounge music that doesn't sound totally deracinated or desexed.
by Charles Aaron