Three years after Dummy made them reluctant figureheads of trip-hop, Portishead answered with a self-titled second album that sanded away every comfort. The samples are self-made, cut from records the band pressed themselves, and the result is colder and more claustrophobic than its predecessor. Beth Gibbons sings like someone with nothing left to lose on All Mine and Only You, while Cowboys and Half Day Closing grind forward on rusted grooves. Released 1997 on Go! Beat, it remains the sound of a group refusing to repeat itself.