Massive Attack Blue Lines ( vinyl LP )

Release date: 02-12-2016 (1991)

2016 EU reissue vinyl LP - Including"Unfinished Sympathy" "Daydreaming," Blue Lines is the landmark debut album from the British DJ and trip-hop group Massive Attack, made up of Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles, Grant "Daddy G" Marshall and Robert "3D" Del Naja. Although the term trip-hop wasn't officially coined until years after its release, Blue Lines is universally regarded as the the genre's maverick album. Masterfully blending elements of American hip-hop, British club culture, dub, reggae and soul, the groundbreaking 9-song set is equally as inventive in beats, pace and mood which all together set the perfect backdrop for evocative guest vocal spots by Shara Nelson, Horace Andy, Neneh Cherry and Tricky.

With essential classics like "Unfinished Sympathy" and "Daydreaming," it's hard to argue with the claim that Blue Lines is not only the most revolutionary and influential dance album of the '90s but one of the best dance albums of all time!

Tracks:
A1 Safe From Harm
A2 One Love
A3 Blue Lines
A4 Be Thankful For What You've Got
A5 Five Man Army

B1 Unfinished Sympathy
B2 Daydreaming
B3 Lately
B4 Hymn Of The Big Wheel

ALLMUSIC:
The first masterpiece of what was only termed trip-hop much later, Blue Lines filtered American hip-hop through the lens of British club culture, a stylish, nocturnal sense of scene that encompassed music from rare groove to dub to dance. The album balances dark, diva-led club jams along the lines of Soul II Soul with some of the best British rap (vocals and production) heard up to that point, occasionally on the same track.

The opener "Safe from Harm" is the best example, with diva vocalist Shara Nelson trading off lines with the group's own monotone (yet effective) rapping. Even more than hip-hop or dance, however, dub is the big touchstone on Blue Lines. Most of the productions aren't quite as earthy as you'd expect, but the influence is palpable in the atmospherics of the songs, like the faraway electric piano on "One Love" (with beautiful vocals from the near-legendary Horace Andy). One track, "Five Man Army," makes the dub inspiration explicit, with a clattering percussion line, moderate reverb on the guitar and drums, and Andy's exquisite falsetto flitting over the chorus. Blue Lines isn't all darkness, either -- "Be Thankful for What You've Got" is quite close to the smooth soul tune conjured by its title, and "Unfinished Sympathy" -- the group's first classic production -- is a tremendously moving fusion of up-tempo hip-hop and dancefloor jam with slow-moving, syrupy strings.

Flaunting both their range and their tremendously evocative productions, Massive Attack recorded one of the best dance albums of all time.