"Editorial abstract illustration evoking the emotional arc of a song titled "The Rip" by Portishead. Modest rise and fall. balanced composition. Mood: dreamy, introspective, melancholy. Visual style: 2000s digital editorial aesthetic. Painterly, grainy film texture, muted palette with strategic accent colors. The composition should read left-to-right like a timeline — calm on one side, intensifying toward the other. Strictly no faces, no text, no logos, no literal objects, no band imagery. Pure color-field abstraction with emotional weight. 16:9 editorial format."
Easy, low-key calm, gentler than 83% of our 19,209 measured songs — measures out best for focus.
90
BPM
The Rip by Portishead is 90 BPM — Andante (walking pace).
Half-time 45 BPM · Double-time 180 BPM · released 2008
Fan image for "The Rip"
An abstract illustration of what this song feels like. Each image is built from a prompt — the text description fed to the image generator. Listeners submit their own prompts, upvote the ones that fit best, and the top-voted prompt drives the next regeneration. After 100 image votes, we make a new picture.
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Song DNA
Notes: Smooth acoustic guitar transitions gently into electronic swells, creating a hypnotic and serene flow without harsh elements. Beth Gibbons' emotive yet restrained vocals add intimacy without intensity.
Misophonia Triggers
Recommended for: anxiety relief deep listening relaxation
A folk ballad that evolves into electronic trip-hop, featuring acoustic guitar, subtle synths, and Beth Gibbons' haunting vocals.
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Moods: dreamy, introspective, melancholy
Traditions: trip-hop
At a glance
"The Rip" by Portishead
90 BPM, dynamic range 5/10, smooth texture, soft vocals. Sits in the middle band — neither built for stillness nor pitched at workout intensity. Whether it works for a given moment depends more on mood and lyrical content than on the acoustic profile. The full sensory breakdown follows.
How this song sits on each sensory axis
A dynamic range of 5/10 is within the normal pop-mix band. There is variation between verse and chorus, but it's the kind of variation most listeners encounter routinely.
Sudden changes: mild. There are one or two transitions worth knowing about, though they're musically resolved rather than surprise-driven.
Texture: smooth.
Predictability is high — the song telegraphs what it will do next. A sensory-sensitive listener can usually guess where it's going without close attention.
Vocal style: soft vocals.
Where this sits in Portishead's catalog
We have 32 songs from Portishead in the library. Of those, 4 are rated Safe, 20 Moderate, and 8 Intense. This song's dynamic range of 5/10 sits below the artist average of 5.8, making it the #23 most dynamic track of theirs in our library.
Other tracks from Third
We have 11 songs from this album. Overall, the album leans moderate in sensory profile.
- Silence — intense DR 7
- Hunter — moderate DR 6
- Nylon Smile — moderate DR 6
- Plastic — intense DR 8
- We Carry On — moderate DR 6
- Deep Water — safe DR 3
- Machine Gun — intense DR 7
- Magic Doors — moderate DR 6
- Threads — intense DR 8
- Pedestal — moderate DR 7
2008 context
Released in 2008. We have 259 songs from that year in our library, averaging a dynamic range of 6.4/10. This track is quieter / less dynamic than the year average. Explore more from the 2000s.
Explore by mood and tradition
Traditions
trip-hop · 115Guides that may help
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm — A guide for sensory-sensitive li…
How fast is "The Rip"?
90 BPM — Medium (midtempo / pop ballad)
For running
Too slow for most running; good for warm-up walks or cool-down.
For workouts
Warm-up, cool-down, yoga, stretching.
For daily life
Morning coffee, deep work, commute wind-down.
Browse more songs at 90 BPM.
When "The Rip" works, and when it doesn't
Use-case verdicts computed from the song's tempo, dynamics, and sensory profile.
~
Focus / studying
Maybe — fine for routine work, but the mid-song changes may pull attention during deep focus.
✗
Running / workout
No — 90 BPM is too slow for sustained cardio.
✗
Sleep / winding down
No — contains elements that will keep an awake nervous system engaged.
✓
Driving / road trip
Yes — predictable enough for safe driving attention, interesting enough to stay engaged.
✓
Cooking / dinner background
Yes — sits in the background without demanding attention.
✓
Emotional release / catharsis
Yes — this is a song for actively feeling what you came to feel, not for background.
Related reading
Editorial guides that cover this song's use cases, moods, or artist.
Every Portishead album ranked by how much dread it leaves in the room
Portishead made only three albums in fourteen years — and each one rearranges something in your chest. A sensory deep-dive into trip-hop's m…
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm — A guide for sensory-sensitive listeners on musiciwant.com
Trip-hop is the sound of a slowed heartbeat — a sensory guide to the Bristol sound
Portishead, Massive Attack, Tricky: how trip-hop's slow tempos and dense texture act on your nervous system, and how to enter the genre with…
Why this rating
We rate this song Safe because its dynamic range stays within our low-variance band, there are no unsignaled changes, and the texture and vocal style are both in the low-fatigue range. Our methodology uses an AND rule for Safe — a song has to clear every dimension to earn the rating.
This song in the Music Studio
27/100 intensity
See how “The Rip” sits against your own sensitivities, or use it as a waypoint in a calmer set.
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Spotify and YouTube links go direct to the track when we have the ID; otherwise they search for it. Embed this sensory profile on your site →
Rating last reviewed: 2026-04-13. Reviewed by the Music I Want editorial team against the documented methodology.
Think this rating is wrong? Contact the editor — every message is read and ratings get revised.
By the numbers: how this song compares
Computed from this song’s place among the 19,209 songs we’ve measured.
Where it sits in 19,000 songs
This sits near the calm end of everything we've measured — gentler than 83% of the 19,209 songs in the library. Its intensity reading of 27/100 comes from a dynamic range of 5/10, smooth texture, mild shifts, and soft vocals. Relatively few songs occupy this exact corner of the spectrum.
What makes it unusual
What stands out most about this song is an unusually steady, even volume: more extreme on that axis than 88% of everything we've measured. At the far opposite end of the library sit the songs built on full chaos — sudden changes, huge quiet-to-loud swings, and relentless energy — the kind of track this one is the counterpoint to.
Feels almost identical to
Velvet — a-ha · 99%Time (The Revelator) — Gillian Welch · 99%Tropical Loveland — ABBA · 99%The Sound of Silence — Simon and Garfunkel · 99%
Closest matches by feel across all 19,209 measured songs — not by genre or artist, by how they actually move.
What it’s good for
Sleep7/10
Focus10/10
Workout1/10
Dinner8/10
Party / hype1/10
Scored from this song’s tempo, intensity, dynamics and texture — not crowd votes.
2008 in context
The 259 songs we’ve measured from 2008 average a dynamic range of 6.4/10. At 5/10, this track is gentler and steadier than its year.
Mixes smoothly with
Within a few BPM and close in feel — they flow without a jarring transition.
The fingerprint
Intensity27
Dynamics44
Tempo28
Surprise25
Density0
Predictability0
Vocal force25
Trigger load0
The 8-dimension measurement behind every rating on this page.
Frequently asked about "The Rip"
Quick answers pulled from the song's sensory analysis.
What is the BPM of "The Rip" by Portishead?
"The Rip" by Portishead has a tempo of 90 BPM (Andante (walking pace)). At half-time that is 45 BPM, and at double-time 180 BPM.
What is the sensory intensity of "The Rip" by Portishead?
"The Rip" by Portishead rates as Low-Intensity. Dynamic range 5/10, mild sudden changes, smooth texture. Our Low-Intensity rating means no single dimension triggers the higher-intensity thresholds.
How loud is "The Rip" — what is its dynamic range?
"The Rip" has a dynamic range of 5/10. Within normal pop-mix variation. Movement between verse and chorus but nothing dramatic.
Does "The Rip" have sudden or surprising changes?
"The Rip" has mild sudden changes — one or two transitions worth knowing about, but they are musically resolved rather than surprise-driven.
What is "The Rip" best for?
In our library "The Rip" is recommended for: anxiety relief, deep listening, relaxation. These tags are assigned only where the song's sensory profile genuinely supports the use case.
When was "The Rip" released?
"The Rip" is from 2008, on the album "Third". It appears in our 2000s catalog.
What is the emotional mood of "The Rip"?
We tag "The Rip" as dreamy, introspective, melancholy. Moods are tonal descriptors based on how the song reads emotionally — separate from the sensory intensity axes.
What is the vocal style of "The Rip"?
The vocal style is soft vocals.
Is "The Rip" good for running?
Not really — at 90 BPM it's below most running cadences. Better for warm-up, cool-down, or walking. Recreational runners typically step at 140-175 BPM.
Is "The Rip" good for studying?
Only partially. The song's dynamic range (5/10) means there will be loud moments that break focus during deep work.
Can I use "The Rip" for sleep?
Not recommended for sleep. Contains transitions that will wake you up.
Should I listen to "The Rip"?
If you want gentle, low-arousal music, "The Rip" is a solid pick — Low-Intensity across every sensory dimension.
Songs with the same DNA
smooth texture, similar intensity — across any genre or era.
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Where to next?
You know how this one feels — now go find the next one.