The 500 - #397 - Blue Lines - Massive Attack

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 397

Album Title: Blue Lines
Artist: Massive Attack
Genre: Trip Hop, British Hip Hop
Recorded: Five Studios - including Abbey Road
Released: April, 1991
My age at release: 25
How familiar was I with it before this week: Somewhat Familiar
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Unfinished Sympathy

This week, I am delighted to have another guest blogger, my friend Steve Monaghan. I met Steve in the early 2000s. We quickly bonded around our mutual love of sports, music and beer. It is fitting that Steve share his experience with this record because he was the person who introduced me to the band almost 20 years ago.

Blue Lines is the debut record, produced in Bristol, England, by Trip Hop pioneers Massive Attack. At the time of its release, the band consisted of four core members, Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adrian "Tricky" Thaws, Andrew "Mushroom" Vowels and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. My first experience with Massive Attack’s Blue Lines, was the song Unfinished Sympathy, rising out of my college-era stereo in 1991. I was roused from my studies and summoned to the sound being played by a friend who was, clearly, much cooler than I. It would play from that stereo for the next year at any time I thought fitting -- which was almost always. I recently discovered that the song would take a lofty perch on the Guardian newspaper poll as the 10th greatest song of all time.

Marc asked me to select one song from Blue Lines to be added to The 500 Spotify Playlist he is curating. There are several worthy candidates on this debut record and, as a dedicated fan, I gave it much thought. I like to believe, as a bigger fan than the occasional listener, that I needed to choose something other than the album's biggest hit. However, Unfinished Sympathy has a significance for me that goes beyond the sound itself. I resigned myself to the fact that it was impossible not to select.

Blue Lines, would mark the start of a musical evolution into a down tempo mix of hip hop, reggae and soul in a uniquely British sound, and Massive Attack was about to step forward as a driving force in the trip hop world. 

Massive Attack photographed while filming 
the video for Safe From Harm

This album features a number of tracks that I could argue for making Marc’s playlist. The opening track, Safe From Harm, is a great lead into what is to come. Both melodic and sharp, it’s an intoxicating mix of heavy funk and loving menace. 

“You can free the world, you can free my mind, just as long as my baby’s safe from harm tonight”.

Brilliant!

Five Man Army, with Tricky and Daddy G’s hypnotic verbal exchange leads the listener deep into a smoke-filled room replete with vague silhouettes just out of the listeners line of sight. It perfectly captures a dreamy downtempo vibe that lets one just lay back and float around the room, head swaying from side to side as the mind drifts along. It is a perfect setup for the instantly recognizable opening notes of Unfinished Sympathy, a song that topped the charts around the world in the spring of 1991. I would argue that it would still top the charts if it were released today.

I have loved every Massive Attack offering throughout the years, and although Mezzanine may be considered their best overall album, I don't think Blue Lines, with the intoxicating Unfinished Sympathy, has ever been bested by Del Naja and company.

For any music fan, this album offers tasty morsels in every track, be it a shout-out to George Harrison on the song Daydreaming, or the stripped down beat in One Love. Perhaps the Motown-inspired backing and ageless advice of Be Thankful For What You Got will strike your fancy. To this day, nearly 30 years since its release, every listen feels like a new stroll through some favorite old haunts.

As I get ready to hand this review over to Marc to take on the task of editing my rambling narrative, it seems fitting to be exiting the album with the final tune, which is the almost newcomer-to-the-party track, Hymn Of The Big Wheel. This song takes us out of our strangely sharp stupor and back to the world made a little cooler by this incredible first offering from Massive Attack. I think about Marc’s plight ahead while I put up my feet and open a beer,

“…the earth spins on its axis, one man struggles while another relaxes.”

Delicious.

Cheers, Marc. Thanks for inviting me onboard for one of my favorite albums, one that opened up so many wonderful worlds of sound for me.