Portishead - Machine Gun

Beth Gibbons' vocal has the haunting quality of Annie Lennox - Machine Gun is like a hard-edged Eurythmics. The Bristol trio have produced a harsh listen, but it nonetheless has a strange and eerie beauty. The machine gun beat delivery is unsettling and unforgiving. It it bold in its directness, and big in drama.

More film score noir than radio friendly trip-pop, but, oh, that haunting voice. Gibbons' creeps dangerously under the skin, combining with staccato industrialism and a triumphant finale.

It might well be a sinister classic. Time will tell.