Massive Attack’s Blue Lines

33⅓ Main Series #140

by Ian Bourland

In 1991, a loose-knit collective released a record called Blue Lines under the name Massive Attack, splicing together American hip-hop and soul with the sounds of the British underground. With its marauding bass lines, angular guitars, and psychedelic effects, Blue Lines built on the Caribbean soundsystems and nascent rave scene of the 1980s while also looking ahead to the group's signature blend of epic cinematics and lush downtempo. In the process, Blue Lines invented an entirely new genre called trip hop and launched the career of a rapper named Tricky.

Ultimately, Blue Lines created the sonic playbook for an emerging hybrid, digital, cosmopolitan, and rooted in the black and immigrant communities who animated the urban wreckage of the postindustrial city. Massive Attack envisioned an alternate future in sharp counterpoint to the glossy triumphalism of Brit Pop. And while the group would go on to bigger things, this record was both a warning shot and a definitive statement that sounds as otherworldy today as on the day of its release. As Blue Lines's iconic flame logo spun on turntables the world over, Massive Attack and their spaced-out urban blues reimagined music for the 1990s and beyond.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

136 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 17, 2019

Reviews

[Tom Boniface-Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. An interesting approach to this 33 1/3. It’s less an analysis of the individual tracks and what is on the album, and more an incredibly in-depth look at the world around the album, both before and afterwards.

I was particularly interested in how they wrote classics like Unfinished Sympathy: where did the beat come from, who arranged the strings, who played the piano line, and there is a certain amount of that here, but the chief focus is on the album as a sociological document and how it affected the time.

A fascinating read and a great addition to the series.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit of a controversial opinion but although I do like Blue Lines, I've always preferred Massive Attack's third album Mezzanine. To be even more honest, I find it dated and, in certain places, a but new agey.
However, the band are notoriously media shy and even throughout their popularity it was difficult to come across an interview with them. Ian Bourland's book goes into the Bristol sound, Massive Attack's formation, the development of Blue Lines and the post tip hop scene. As one can guess there are segments on tricky, Neneh Cherry and Adrian Sherwood.

Another good one

[Santiago Cembrano · Rating 4 out of 5]

De los 33 1/3 que he leído hasta ahora, este ha sido mi favorito. Su fuerza está en el contexto que dibuja alrededor del disco: la cultura y la política de Bristol, la revolución de las máquinas de la que brotaron el hip hop y luego el llamado trip hop, las coincidencias y disidencias entre hip hop y trip hop, nuevas formas de identidad británica que retaban el establecimiento conservador. Es una pieza genial de periodismo musical. Estoy listo para el concierto de Massive Attack de la otra semana.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

not completely terrible, but the Americanisms are incredibly jarring, especially to this long term Bristolian (bodegas on Grosvenor Road? being surprised that Neneh Cherry says 'gigolo' instead of 'scrub' in Buffalo Stance?), and the absence of any input from the core creative people behind the album (which is still the finest British record released in my lifetime, let's not forget) leaves a big hole at the centre of the book which doesn't get filled by anything of substance.

[Brian Shevory · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not a huge Massive Attack fan, but I have always appreciated their music, and more often like a lot of other bands coming from Bristol (Tricky, Portishead). It was interesting to read about the kind of nominal “Bristol Sound” that Bourland cited as more of a journalistic device to point to all of the music coming out of this area in the 90s. I agree since many of these bands sounds quite different. I really enjoyed this look at Blue Lines. Bourland doesn’t really delve into the songs specifically but takes a more contextual approach, looking at the environment and time period that led to the creation of this album, examining how crews around Bristol set up sound systems, eventually leading members of Massive Attack to one another. I also learned that Neneh Cherry had a hand in helping with this album. I was reading this book at the same time as Thurston Moore’s Sonic Life memoir, so it was a weird coincidence that Neneh Cherry came up in both books, with both books talking about Don Cherry and The Slits. Regardless, Bourland engaged in considerable research to show how NY hip-hop culture (graffiti, sound systems) from the 70s filtered through England in the 80s, and created something novel and unique. I think this is apparent in Massive Attack’s work, since they are not really the kind of boom-bap that was happening in the 80s and 90s, but more relaxed and heady. I also really appreciated that Bourland not only looks into the scenes and conditions that led to the creation of Massive Attack, but also examines the lives of some of the participants, like Tricky and Cherry. While this book is a little different from the kind of song by song analysis of some 33 1/3 books, I really appreciated Bourland’s extensive research and exploration of this album and the factors that led to its creation.

[user061219 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great resource on the wider context of the world that Blue Lines was conceived in and how it fits into the zeitgeist of collaborative art and music of the 1990’s in the UK. Disappointingly however, it lacks depth on what’s under the hood of this album, glossing over the samples, instruments, studio techniques, and in some cases, lyrics that one might seek decoded.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, the first 80 or so pages of this book were great, exactly where the series could spend more time, providing history rather than analytics and aside. I felt like maybe the latter half suffered from trying to cram too many ideas into one small area, maybe too many mental asides. Still, the dominating first half of the book made up for the lackluster back half.

[Hernán M. Sanabria]

Another enjoyable entry from the already essential 33 1/3 collection. Too bad that Del Naja and Marshall chose not to participate; at least Bourland was resourceful to gather as much information as possible.

[Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great volume about a genre-defining record. This one touches on Britpop, Trip Hop, Hip Hop, Manchester, Bristol, the Brixton Riots, Neneh Cherry, graffiti, the Clash, and so much more...

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author gets a bit swamped in context along the way, but this is still better written than most of the books I’ve read in the series