Sour Times

Content

The song uses a sample from Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin's "Danube Incident".

The B-side track "Airbus Reconstruction" was actually recorded by the band Airbus, who were former school friends of Geoff Barrow.

Music video

The music video is made of footage from Portishead's short film To Kill a Dead Man.

Release

"Sour Times" was released as the second single from Dummy on 1 August 1994. It initially reached only number 57 in the UK Singles Chart, but after the success of "Glory Box" in 1995, it was re-released and peaked at number 13 in April. It is also the band's only song to date to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, at number 53. "Sour Times" was the band's first entry on the Australian ARIA top 100 singles chart, peaking at number 66 in March 1995.

Legacy

"Sour Times" was covered by Bryn Christopher on his album My World. The Blank Theory also covered "Sour Times" on their Beyond the Calm of the Corridor release, which was featured in the trailer for Wicker Park. More recently, "Sour Times" was covered by Marsha Ambrosius on her debut solo album Late Nights & Early Mornings. The Civil Wars performed the song on their four-song EP of covers titled Between the Bars, which was released in 2013.

"Sour Times" was used as the theme music to the ITV drama series The Vice, and also appeared in the film Killing Time and TV shows Warehouse 13 and The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.

The song was sampled in the 2004 single "Teardrops" by The 411.

Track listing

1. "Sour Times"
2. "It's a Fire"
3. "Pedestal"
4. "Theme from 'To Kill a Dead Man'"

1. "Sour Times" (edit)
2. "Sour Sour Times"
3. "Lot More"
4. "Sheared Times"
5. "Airbus Reconstruction"