Customer Reviews
Nobody loves me, it's true - By: E. A Solinas, 19 Jul 2005 
Portishead only has two (soon to be three) full-length albums to their name, as well as a live album. Not so easily accessible is "Glory Times," a two-disc collection of alternate takes on two of the best songs on their debut. After this, it's hard to hear "Dummy" quite the same way again.
The first disc is taken up by three "Sour Times" mixes & two instrumentals. It opens with the gently jazzy "Sour Sour Times," before veering to the poignantly funky "Lot More," & the scratchy, raw "Airbus Reconstruction." The instrumentals are even more impressive: the ominous, stately "Sheared Times," & "Theme from 'To Kill A Dead Man," which has piano & electronica building up to a soaring string solo.
The second disc, on the other hand, has four mixes of "Glory Box," plus another instrumental. It opens with a basic edit & goes on to the guitar-heavy, fuzzy "Glory Box (Mudflap Mix)," & the playfully wistful "Toy Box." The instrumental is "Sheared Box," a mess of murky electronica that slowly pulls itself into something resembling melody.
"Scorn" is perhaps the star of both discs here -- one of the remixes of "Glory Box," but not the relatively cheerful one on "Dummy." It has a slow, dark melody, with Beth Gibbons slowly intoning, "Gonna give my heart away,/Leave it to the other girls to play,/For I've been a temptress too long." She sounds pretty evil here.
"Glory Times" is not a place to start checking out Portishead. New potential fans: Try one of their full-length albums, or even their live album. Not this one.
Anyone who does will end up being frustrated by the limited material. Instead, this is for fans of Portishead who really, really enjoyed "Dummy" & want to check out anything Portishead has done. And, I might add, are willing to hear the same melodies over & over, albeitin different forms.
Beth Gibbons does it all here, ranging from scratchy garage-rock vocals to the eerie she-devil voice of "Scorn." She gets a bit buriedin "Airbus Construction," where it sounds like a scratchy-voiced man is trying to sing over her. But most of the time, she just adds the necessary note of wistfulness to the songs, whatever the mix is.
"Glory Times" is a good accompaniment to "Dummy," but only if the listener is already a fan. An excellent listen for fans of Portishead.
A lot of remixes and a bit more... - By: dangermouse93@hotmail.com, 07 Feb 2001 
I got this cd for Christmas & to be quite honest I'm glad I didn't pay for it, because much as I love Portishead, I don't think I would. Mostly remixes of two of the best songs from Bristol's trip-hop best debut album Dummy, Sour Times & Glory Box, which are all good but can't quite compare to the originals... Beth's voice on Sheared Times is distorted into an angry, twisted sound which you feel sort of ruins the original. However the excellent instrumental 'Theme from to Kill a Dead Man' is a refreshing break from the remixes. Altogether it's a great 'album' whether you love Portishead or are new to them, you will want the albums after buying it but at the price it's really only for the fans.
