Classic Album Review: Massive Attack - Blue Lines (1991)

Perhaps only Portishead’s 1994 album, Dummy, can rival Massive Attack’s Blue Lines for the accolade of the No.1 trip hop album of all-time. Partly because the genre appears to have died a slow and relatively obscure death (death by a thousand non-entities?), partly because it was a niche genre in the first place and provided us with just a few key exponents, but mostly because Blue Lines and Dummy are the sort of albums that, regardless of any genre classification, have demanded repeated listening long after the initial hype or fuss subsided.

Each album provided a landmark work for the Nineties “dance”/club scene, not to mention a whole raft of remixing opportunities for an ever-increasing number of DJs or producers eager to make their mark. Trip hop is basically a fusion of hip hop, low bpm techno, soul, funk, and jazz, with elements of dub, and Blue Lines is an album which encapsulates all of the above with such carefree nonchalance it becomes pointless trying to resist. It’s one of the few albums of any era that can safely lay claim to being both a Saturday night album and a Sunday morning poison of choice; there’s something for almost everyone on Blue Lines - a critical factor behind its mainstream success and longevity as an established “classic”. 

Massive Attack’s main protagonists at the time of making Blue Lines were Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja, Grantley ‘Daddy G’ Marshall, and Andrew ‘Mushroom’ Vowles (the group’s core), but it was the variety provided by vocalists Shara Nelson, Horace Andy, and Tricky, plus a cameo appearance by Neneh Cherry, that helped elevate Blue Lines to the acclaimed status it enjoys today. There simply isn’t a dull moment; from the monumental opener ‘Safe From Harm’ right through to the climactic closer ‘Hymn Of The Big Wheel’. At various points in the middle we get three other major highlights – ‘One Love’, the seminal ‘Unfinished Sympathy’, and one of my favourite slices of Seventies-flavoured soul ever, ‘Be Thankful For What You’ve Got’, which just oozes retro cool. 

The only potential fault with Blue Lines is its tendency to sound a little dated in parts - thirty or so years later, that’s hardly surprising - but if you can look beyond that, and one or two other minor issues with production, the album will prove a thoroughly rewarding listening experience.

Classic Album Review: Portishead - Dummy (1994)

Emerging from the short-lived early Nineties “trip hop” boom, Portishead have their own unique sound, and the band’s debut album, Dummy, sounds as fresh today as it did at the time of its release back in 1994.

Combining elements of hip hop and jazz, with a laidback and somewhat distinctive approach to synthpop, Portishead’s most immediately identifiable feature is the voice of lead singer Beth Gibbons. Fragile, haunting, and strangely seductive, Gibbons’ vocals stood out like a fluorescent beacon in a vast sea of pre-Britpop mediocrity, and Dummy’s huge success was in no small way attributable to the way Gibbons interpreted the light-on-structure but nonetheless compelling material she had to work with.   

After a decade of inactivity, Portishead made a formidable comeback in 2008 with the belated release of a third album, the critically-acclaimed and aptly-titled Third, which went some way towards restoring the band to its former heights. However, the innovative Dummy set the benchmark, not only for these guys as a unit, but also for a host of other so-called trip hop wannabes seeking to emulate Portishead’s success - and that of Massive Attack - at the time.

Few succeeded, and commercially at least, the sub-genre faded into obscurity, or perhaps it is fairer to say it was swallowed up by a relentless bombardment of Britpop and the crossing over of in-yer-face high-bpm techno. Or maybe it simply morphed into the ubiquitous “chill-out” genre, who can really say? Given that neither Portishead nor Massive Attack have been especially prolific, it is hardly surprising there have been long periods without any persuasive points of reference.

Six (of eleven tracks) download essentials: ‘Sour Times’, ‘Wandering Star’, ‘It’s A Fire’, ‘Numb’, ‘Roads’, and the fantastic closer, ‘Glory Box’.