Artist.......: Massive Attack
Album........: Blue Lines
Label........: Virgin
Genre........: Electronic
Catnr........: n/a
Source.......: CD (LP)
Rip.date.....: 2012-11-20
Str.date.....: 2012-11-19
Quality......: 233kbps/44.1kHz/Joint Stereo
Url..........: http://massiveattack.com/
track title time
1. Safe from Harm 5:19
2. One Love 4:48
3. Blue Lines 4:21
4. Be Thankful for What You've Got 4:09
5. Five Man Army 6:04
6. Unfinished Sympathy 5:08
7. Daydreaming 4:14
8. Lately 4:26
9. Hymn of the Big Wheel 6:22
Runtime 44:51
Size 75.21
Release Notes:
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.