[1] With Portishead, the band chose to eschew sampling other records, which had been a defining feature of their debut album Dummy.

[2] "Western Eyes" is listed as sampling "Hookers & Gin" by the Sean Atkins Experience in the album's liner notes.

In a rave review for Q, Andrew Harrison said that the album showed Portishead sounding "less and less like a conflation of influences, and more and more like themselves", finding the music "almost cinematic" and the lyrics "more rounded" in perspective than on Dummy.

[8] Commenting on the textures of the music, Barry Walters wrote in Spin that the group had created a "gothic", "deadly" and "trippy" atmosphere and gotten "darker, deeper, and more disturbing.

"[14] AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine stated that while "on the surface, Portishead isn't all that dissimilar from Dummy", the "darker and more adventurous" quality of the music becomes apparent over repeated listens, adding that "the sonics ... would make it an impressive follow-up, but what seals its success is the remarkable songwriting.