One of the 90s’ early classics and a landmark album in dance music, Bristol’s Massive Attack invented the ‘trip-hop’ genre, an ambient form of hip-hop. Born from the ashes of pioneering sound system unit the Wild Bunch, the core trio of Daddy-G, Mushroom and 3-D were joined on Blue Lines by soul diva Shara Nelson, reggae singer Horace Andy and a young Tricky. Together they fashioned a strikingly modern urban soundtrack that added an emotional intensity to the sparseness and studied cool of hip-hop, with Nelson’s impassioned vocals on ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ helping to create one of the songs that defined the 90s.

Tracklisting
1. Safe From Harm
2. One Love
3. Blue Lines
4. Be Thankful For What You’re Got
5. Five Man Army
6. Unfinished Sympathy
7. Daydreaming
8. Lately
9. Hymn Of The Big Wheel

Professional Reviews
Spin (9/99, p.131) – Ranked #24 in Spin Magazine’s “90 Greatest Albums of the ’90s.”

Spin (8/91) – Highly Recommended – “…simply beautiful…assaults the ear and the ass, lulling and grooving…”

Q (12/99, p.70) – Included in Q Magazine’s “90 Best Albums Of The 1990s.”

Q (10/01, p.99) – Ranked #8 in Q’s “Best 50 Albums of Q’s Lifetime”

Q (6/00, p.85) – Ranked #9 in Q’s “100 Greatest British Albums” – “…It unwittingly gave birth to a new slow-burning, heavily atmospheric strain of dance music that…would very swiftly be termed trip hop….music designed for the head first and the feet second.”

Vibe (12/99, p.157) – Included in Vibe’s 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century

Melody Maker (12/91) – Ranked #23 in Melody Maker’s list of the top 30 albums of 1991 – “…”Blue Lines” was the album Soul II Soul never managed: a loose cross between ambient House, old Studio One-time reggae, swingbeat and the post-M.A.R.S. hippychick groove. Truly gorgeous…”

New York Times (Publisher) (10/30/91) – “…mixes rap, funk, and soul into something nicely relaxed and fluid.”

NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) – Ranked #97 in NME’s list of the “Greatest Albums Of All Time.”

Related Posts
Massive Attack – Mezzanine

What do you do when you’ve already changed the face of music once in a decade? If you’re Bristol, UK sonic architects Massive Attack, you refine the model for the times. MEZZANINE, the third album from the producer/DJ crew who, for all intents and purposes, created the genre of trip-hop, is thicker, less spacious and far more guitar-heavy than their previous efforts. Then again, the blue-print remains: hip-hop beats, behemoth bass underpinnings and spare melodic overtones still control Massive Attack’s drive. After all, one doesn’t expect the inventors to abandon their discoveries just because every pop new jack is onto their gold mine.

Tracklisting
1. Angel
2. Risingson
3. Teardrop
4. Inertia Creeps
5. Exchange
6. Dissolved Girls
7. Man Next Door
8. Black Milk
9. Mezzanine
10. Group Four
11. (Exchange)

Professional Reviews
Spin (1/99, p.91) – Ranked #6 on Spin’s list of “Top 20 Albums of ‘98.”

Entertainment Weekly (5/15/98, pp.102-103) – “MEZZANINE is Victorian trip-hop–hulking, clangorous, and dank….It’s industrial music for the turn of the century–the 19th century.” – Rating: A-

Q (12/99, p.100) – Included in Q Magazine’s “90 Best Albums Of The 1990s.”

Q (6/00, p.80) – Ranked #15 in Q’s “100 Greatest British Albums” – “…Sonic murk and gloom…a punk-hop record about autism…”

The Wire (1/99, p.27) – Included in Wire’s “50 Records Of The Year [1998]”

Mixmag (1/99, p.49) – Included in Mixmag’s “Ten Best Albums of 98″ – “…Britain’s coolest band…”

CMJ (1/11/99, p.7) – “…The grandfathers of trip-hop pulled off yet another wise and wily album, redefining the future shape of pop, soul and trip-hop, while inspiring another wave of artists in the process…”

Musician (7/98, pp.84-86) – “…at once the best and most personal album of their career….MEZZANINE shows them creating exotic, bruised backdrops for battered relationships that feel as strangely alienating as a night out with Travis Bickle…”

Mojo (Publisher) (p.66) – Ranked #14 in Mojo’s “100 Modern Classics” — “[I]t evokes DARK SIDE OF THE MOON’s epic yet intimate dread, reflected in the obliquely monochrome title…”

New Zealand songstress Ladyhawke makes what can best be described as Euro-American disco-party trash. This multi-instrumentalist clearly grew up playing Stevie Nicks in the mirror over a soundtrack of ’70s funk and ’80s freestyle pop. Here, the finest moments come on “Love Don’t Live Here,” which re-imagines classic Heart as fronted by a more overtly cooing seductress, and “Paris Is Burning,” where Ladyhawke teases through the chorus in its eponymous city’s native tongue. Fun is the operating word on this self-titled full-length, and it’s achieved by balancing the catchy and current with the warm embrace of nostalgia.

Tracklisting
1. Magic
2. Manipulating Woman
3. My Delirium
4. Better Than Sunday
5. Another Runaway
6. Love Don’t Live Here
7. Back Of The Van
8. Paris Is Burning
9. Professional Suicide
10. Dusk Til Dawn
11. Crazy World
12. Morning Dreams

Professional Reviews
Spin (p.90) – 4 stars out of 5 — “Through the digital wizardry and pumping beats, you can hear an unabashedly heartfelt and occasionally vulnerable artist.”

Clash (magazine) (p.86) – 3.5 stars out of 5 — “Her eponymous debut is the closest thing to ‘Betty Davis Eyes’ or ‘Stand Back’ recorded for our generation…”

WALKING ON A DREAM is the debut album by Empire of the Sun, the Australian duo that includes Luke Steele of pop-rockers the Sleepy Jackson and Nick Littlemore of dance/electronica ensemble Pnau. Together they find a common ground between their stylistically disparate backgrounds, turning out tracks that incorporate both the psych-tinged pop sensibilities of Steele’s previous recordings with the dance-driven snap and sparkling synth flavors of Littlemore’s work with Pnau. There’s a giddiness to the whole affair that lends a spirit of fun to the album, one that could easily appeal to a whole new audience unfamiliar with either man’s past.

Tracklisting
1. Standing On The Shore
2. Walking On A Dream
3. Half Mast
4. We Are The People
5. Delta Bay
6. Country
7. The World
8. Swordfish Hotkiss Night
9. Tiger By My Side
10. Without You

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.61) – 3 stars out of 5 — “‘Without You’ evokes LABYRINTH-era Bowie with its deep, quivering vocals and loopy keyboards.”

Blender (Magazine) – 3 stars out of 5 — “[I]t will haunt your dreams. Acoustic guitars strummed in time with dance beats, tinny vocals and tons of slap-back reverb — it’s like some magical pop formula concocted long ago…”

FEVER RAY is the much-anticipated solo full-length from Karin Dreijer Andersson, the sister half of Sweden’s the Knife. As on that duo’s breakthrough, SILENT SHOUT, a potentially off-putting eeriness, exemplified most often by heavily manipulated vocals, dominates the mood. Icy clicks-and-cuts and melodies radioed in from outer space keep listeners at a distance, but it’s a pleasant aloofness, one that makes the listener want to get on the same cool page. Andersson also gives the Knife’s dance beats a back seat here, choosing to wallow in stripped-down horror (”If I Had a Heart”), strange sorta-folk (”When I Grow Up”), and warped Peter Gabriel-isms (”Concrete Walls”).

Tracklisting
1. If I Had A Heart
2. When I Grow Up
3. Dry And Dusty
4. Seven
5. Triangle Walks
6. Concrete Walls
7. Now’s The Only Time I Know
8. I’m Not Done
9. Keep The Streets Empty For Me
10. Coconut
11. If I Had A Heart [Multimedia Track]

Professional Reviews
Spin (pp.78-79) – “[The album] slightly tones down the Knife’s electro innovation but turns up the creepy affect, making lyrically tender tracks like ‘Concrete Walls’ and hallucinatory sketches like ‘When I Grow Up’ into reverse Rorschachs…”

Alternative Press (p.114) – 3.5 stars out of 5 — “It’s the perfect soundtrack to a midnight walk through a Swedish winter: cold, crisp and gorgeous, with shadows and light intertwined.”

Blender (Magazine) – 3.5 stars out of 5 — “[A]lmost every song incorporates shrewd production details, like the clog-dance percussion that kicks ‘I’m Not Done’ forward.”

Pitchfork (Website) – “In addition to many of the same plasticky percussions and goofy synth sounds that the Knife made their stock in trade, FEVER RAY also brims with fragile, more articulated sounds.”

Clash (magazine) (p.110) – “‘If I Had A Heart’ is a great opener — a hypnotic and dark slab of melancholic ambience with much of the album following suit. Cinematic in its scope, the quality never drops…”

For part of Air’s POCKET SYMPHONY tour, JB Dunckel and Nicolas Godin played shows with only drummer Joey Waronker as support, forcing the band to strip their songs down to their essences. They stick with that lineup on LOVE 2, which delivers some of the most Air-like music to the band’s name, and with good reason: This is the first time Dunckel and Godin have produced their own album. The duo tends to follow their more ambitious work with more accessible material and LOVE 2 is no exception, replacing POCKET SYMPHONY’s exotic, experimental bent with a renewed emphasis on their quintessential sound. Godin and Dunckel dig deep into their arsenal of vintage electronic gear, topping those burbles, buzzes and whooshes with some strings here and a few fuzzed-out guitars and basslines there. Above all, atmosphere is the focus, and early on, the album finds Air at their most confectionary: “Love” is irresistibly pretty, offsetting a glockenspiel that sparkles like grains of sugar with brisk shakers. From there, LOVE 2 sweeps away any remnants of POCKET SYMPHONY’s expansive melancholy with concentrated happiness–these are some of Air’s most lighthearted songs since TALKIE WALKIE. “Be a Bee,” with its aptly buzzing and hovering synths and spy movie theme guitars, could be one of the most stylish novelty pop songs ever. However, the album is often at its best when Air gives listeners more in the way of vocals and hooks. The elegantly psychedelic “So Light is Her Footfall” and the hazy soft-rock sunbeam that is “Sing Sang Sung” expand on the band’s pop side just enough, while “Heaven’s Light” crystallizes the gorgeous retro-futuristic sci-fi romance Air has crafted since their PREMEIRE SYMPTOMES days. Indeed, LOVE 2’s title and album artwork–which features the duo sitting by the shore gazing pensively into the mid-distance–play up Air’s image as makers of mood music extraordinaire, albeit with a bit of an ironic wink. The music does just as deft a job of negotiating the fine line between sophistication and schmaltz; LOVE 2’s centerpiece “Tropical Disease” has it both ways, going from dramatic to melodramatic to playful and back again as it covers rippling pianos, slightly goofy sounding flutes and a decidedly seductive coda. Dunckel and Godin add just a little tension and darkness to the album’s sweetness and light as it unfolds, especially on “Eat My Beat,” an impressive showcase for the immediacy Waronker’s drumming brings to all of these songs. Air remains a deceptively subtle band, but repeated listens to LOVE 2 reveal that Godin and Dunckel aren’t just remaining true to their aesthetic here, but that even a smaller-scale album from the duo has plenty of wit and surprises to offer.

Tracklisting
1. Do The Joy
2. Love
3. So Light Is Her Footfall
4. Be A Bee
5. Missing The Light Of The Day
6. Tropical Disease
7. Heaven’s Light
8. Night Hunter
9. Sing Sang Sung
10. Eat My Beat
11. You Can Tell It To Everybody
12. African Velvet

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.70) – 3 stars out of 5 — “[T]he new dirt and gravitas are refreshing, as is the groove weight of guest drummer Joey Waronker.”

Spin (p.72) – “[T]he duo have nearly perfected their wistfully melodic synth- and vocoder-driven easy-listening jams.”

Alternative Press (p.106) – “Air build a soundtrack to the movie in your head that’s always eclectic and often quite lovely.”

Q (Magazine) (p.110) – 3 stars out of 5 — “[T]heir cocktail of ’70s synth rock and cosmic funk has undergone only subtle changes as they drift along in Gallic sophistication.”