After 11 years, it is a beautiful thing to grab a new record from an old favorite band, bring it home and unwrap it, and discover that as much as has changed in the world around you has changed in your old favorite band, and yet it’s just as familiar — as if you were changing the same ways they were in the interim.

Here it is, though. This is definitely NOT the same Portishead we’ve been missing — and yet, the haunting soundscape, the surprise changes ( on the first listen you say “whoa!” and from then on you eagerly await the moment to happen again ), the simple, bittersweet vocals — are all back, in a new way.

The result: I now have a new fixture in my playlist. Thanks, Portishead.