Massive Attack – ‘Blue Lines’
Whilst 1991 might be the year that grunge broke, it is also when various other acts arrived with views to change the trajectory of popular culture. One album that’s among the most crucial of that significant 12 months is Blue Lines, the debut from Bristol’s Massive Attack.
It’s the moment dance goes expansive. Group directors Robert “3D” Del Naja and Daddy G fuse their dub, soul, reggae, and electronic background with guitar music and the influence from classic concept albums to create emotive dance music. It is music for the head, not the feet, and is considered the first trip-hop album because of this refreshing stylistic angle.
Daddy G explained to The Observer: “I was still DJing, but what we were trying to do was create dance music for the head, rather than the feet. I think it’s our freshest album, we were at our strongest then.”
It’s demonstrative of the album’s power that Chuck Palahniuk, the author of one of Generation X’s most famous political manifestos, Fight Club, describes the record as “chill music”, which he plays in the background when getting creative. It is the Albert Camus of dance music, it moves the mind in dance rather than the limbs.
An album encompassing a kaleidoscopic landscape of genres and moods, from the ominous to the uplifting, symbolically, Blue Lines is Massive Attack establishing their blueprint and a solid base from which they can push off and build. It’s reflective of its raw power that Daddy G deems it their “freshest” offering.
The album starts in the perfect place, ‘Safe From Harm’. The dynamic, repetitive bassline and stoned groove connect with the heady synth to create a piece teeming with a palpable atmosphere immediately enveloping you. Alsocoloured by the excellent vocals of Shara Nelson – who smatters her profound vocals across the record – the sparse riff and chic drums, it blows open the gates for the rest of the album, which is unsurprisingly excellent.
Following the opener is the more passive ‘One Love’, a piece that harks back to the band’s time with Bristol sound systems, with a repetitive vocal melody, jarring yet intelligent brass, and one of the grooviest keyboard lines on the record. Think of it as augmented dub, a fresh side-step.
Many bangers have been skinned to this cut. You could listen to it repeatedly for a long time without getting bored; such is its glory. In fact, creating moments like this is something Massive Attack does extensively across Blue Lines. They create mesmeric rhythms that pierce the brain, sending you into a trance at your desk, on the bus or perhaps more dangerously, when driving.
The third track, ‘Blue Lines’, is also a highlight. The shuffling beat, aided by the sinister vocals of Tricky and the rest of the band, is hypnotic, with the spacious arrangement of the keyboard buried deep in the mix to provide a different edge in the darkness. The minimalist use of the bass is also a moment of note, reflecting how trip-hop and heady dance music draw on the void to create an aural trip.
Track five, ‘Five Man Army’, is a personal highlight. The deep thunder of Daddy G’s vocals is excellent. It’s yet another menacing element that links up with the spaced-out brass and textures to make the hairs stand to attention and keep you locked in. Tricky’s breathy vocals are also stellar, dovetailing with Daddy G and other instrumentation to drive the piece to its conclusion. “Money, money, money; root of all evil”, Jamaican roots legend Horace Andy sings, providing an ideological blueprint for the band in addition to the musical one established on Blue Lines. As a whole, the piece is creepy, wonky and oozing with style; Massive Attack to a tee.
The track then segues into the best cut on the record, ‘Unfinished Sympathy’, a pioneering moment in British dance music. Fusing hip-hop with transcendental musical elements such as the stringed orchestra, the vocal performance of Shara Nelson’s lifetime, the metallic spiral of the beat, and the sample of “hey, hey, hey, hey…” from John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s ‘Planetary Citizen’, here the band imbues dance music with the pulp it had always teased.
Note the exquisite way the strings lift off after the three-minute mark. Words can’t describe what it does to the soul. The ending is also a moment of pure genius, with the beat dropping out and re-emerging, augmenting the piano line’s charm and the kick drum’s impact. Remarkably, according to the band, the piece emerged from a jam.
Across its nearly 45 minutes, Massive Attack’s Blue Lines is an absolute masterpiece. Game-changing and distinctive, to think this is only the beginning says it all about the group.
