Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Massive Attack Reissues Blue Lines


What more can really be said about Massive Attack's Blue Lines? Let's see launched a genre, highly influential, a downtempo masterwork, ahead of the curve, all that and more has been said about this brilliant record. It's recently been reissued and having not listened to it in ages this remastered edition served to constantly remind me of it's brilliance.

This is just an amazing record from start to finish and when you think when it was made and you think that there was nothing like this around it's impact hits you. At a time when dance music was blazing a speedy trail across Britain Massive Attack went the other direction and slowed it all down. They took break beats, samples and seemed to just pitch everything to slow. It really probably shouldn't have worked at the time, but it was such a curve ball that how could it not? Now two decades later the album is seen as monumental, important, and still ridiculously good. There's simply nothing duff about Blue Lines everything about it is just fantastic...The opening tune alone "Safe From Harm," is worth a hundred plays on repeat and the classic "Unfinished Sympathy," is as brilliant as ever. This is the record that laid the foundation for Portishead and the other gazillion groups that emerged from the gorgeous city that is Bristol.

The reissue package captures all of the former glory of the record and elevates it even further with a screen printed cover (like the original) and a five card mailer that contains the album and a DVD version of the record that sounds amazing. This is pretty much a reissue deserving of itself. It's done the original proud and if you consider yourself a fan this is pretty much an essential release. You can't get much better than this and the Blue Lines reissue proves it.

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