Portishead, SOS.

Long before the tragic killing of Jo Cox MP (RIP), Portishead recorded an unremittingly dour, if truly remarkable cover of ABBA’s antithetically uplifting 1975 single, SOS; now, with hate (and, rather more worryingly, hate crimes) seemingly replacing “love”, “happ[ier] days,” and the like, the time could not be more right for the lid to be lifted on a track that, until last week, could only be heard in cinemas screening Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise. Because as an audibly pained Beth Gibbons bewails, “When you’re gone, how can I even try to go on?/ When you’re gone, though I try, how can I carry on?” above lurching synths reminiscent of Geoff Barrow’s DROKK escapades, Portishead transcend simple, eulogistic tribute to perfectly, if perturbingly translate the feeling of dread that is palpably hanging over the country currently. “It used to be so nice, it used to be so good” concludes the first chorus, but maybe you really don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone…

Portishead.