Blue Lines, the debut album to end them all. What are blue lines? Fucked if I know, but when you've got an album of this calibre, who cares? The party begins with Safe From Harm, a funky singalong with the impeccable (at the time) vocals of Shara Nelson, before she went and stalked Pete Tong and all that stuff happened. That's the beauty of Blue Lines actually, it's an extremely versatile album with something for everyone on there. For a bassy trip-hop band, the fact that their music can be played at parties - which does happen, I've read stories - says a lot about how workable their music is. "I was lookin back to see if you were looking back at me to see me looking back at you" is also, somehow, a really good lyric I think, from one of the men who make it all happen, Robert Del Naja aka 3D.
The album also has one of MA's most famous songs, Unfinished Sympathy. This is an absolute classic that will never get old and I reckon one of the best songs of all time. Shara Nelson sings again on this one and she couldn't have done it any better, truly. Play this one at my funeral please.
Horace Andy, an old reggae master, guests with the band on every album they've released to date. His voice is an acquired taste...well I think so anyway, I know a lot of people say "Wow, what a voice!" right away, but I personally didn't. He has a few choice cuts on here, One Love (which samples You Know, You Know by The Mahavishnu Orchestra, another great song incidentally) being one, ha ha ha...and Hymn Of The Big Wheel, one of my top songs from Blue Lines. The chorus line is one of brilliance and simplicity too "One man struggles, while another relaxes" Ain't that the truth...Finally, interesting coincidence: four of the songs on the album are suspiciously close in length to 4:20...
Key Cuts: Safe From Harm; One Love; Be Thankful For What You've Got; Unfinished Sympathy; Daydreaming; Hymn Of The Big Wheel
Now we come to the freshest album for me, I only got it two weeks ago. Protection seems to pick up exactly where Blue Lines left off. I'm not entirely sure what I mean by that but it just feels like a worthy followup. So, I bought the album in HMV and left it unopened for a day. Then by fate (?) my friend was coming down from Glasgow for a visit. So, we did our usual and cruised. I stuck this on and we were both encapsulated by the opening titular track. She made fun of the second track, saying it sounded like it belonged on the Scooby Doo movie soundtrack, which I've managed to unhear. Whew. But when the album was finished, it was her, not me, who asked to hear it again. This was pleasing!
So, Shara Nelson left Massive Attack for Protection, who was replaced by Tracey Thorn, a woman I am wary of to say the least. But even I must admit she did a stellar job on her two songs here. As my mate's mum once said about her, "She really is Everything But The Girl". Anyway, Shara's replacement began the MA tradition of having a new guest vocalist on every album, with a little cameo from a second guest singer too, in this case it's Nicolette on track Three. This might be my current favourite from Protection, I just love her voice and the whole theme of the song, which is basically wishing you could have the pure, innocent mind of a child again while retaining the mental experience you have. Basically, all of the wisdom, with none of the knowledge. Think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, before Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Genius.
Horace Andy is back again too. The rapping present on Blue Lines makes a welcome return too, especially on aforementioned track number two: Karmacoma. Tricky left Massive after this album to pursue his soon-to-be very successful solo career sadly, but his swansong here is a fitting one. Karmacoma is, apart from a very cool-titled song, a brilliant example of Tricky's inimitable vocals and wacky hip hop rhymes. Seriously, the band has something for everyone.
Key Cuts: Protection; Karmacoma; Three; Sly; Heat Miser
Here we are. The greatest of them all. This is where my love affair with the band started...I was watching a shitload of House episodes to kill time before flying to Arizona. Quite a big fan of that show, I was. I went hunting for the theme song one day to use in a comedy album, which was of course Teardrop by Massive Attack. For some reason, I kept going back to this song, drawn to it like a moth to the flame, at no point being able to identify exactly why. One morning, I hadn't slept all night for some reason. I decided to find some new music to keep me busy. I stumbled onto...I think it was by Q...the 50 best British albums of all time and I picked out an album by The Beta Band and I also spied Mezzanine. "Who are these guys, man?" I decided to give another song by them a go, another single from this album, Angel. This was unlike anything I'd ever heard before and I was livid that I hadn't tried it before, it was everything I'd ever wanted in a band. That may sound extreme but I really mean it! I listen to a lot of...spacey...music, like The Amorphous Androgynous, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, La Femme, Stumbleine, Gorillaz (kinda count), but none of them quite did what Angel was doing. I was blown away to say the least. Later, in Arizona, I bought this album as a parting gift for a friend, but before I gave it to her, we had a little listen in the car. Holy. Fuck. Nothing, and I mean nothing, had ever moved me like this before, it was sheer Heaven, especially 'in the glow'.
So here we are today, I'm a massive (ha ha) fan of this band and that isn't going to change. Anyway! Enough about me. Mezzanine is sheer paranoia in music form and there isn't a bad song on it. One of my favourite things about the band is that they never explicitly state their stance on the connotations of their music, like drugs, sex, etc. I've no idea what they're up to at any point and I love them all the more for it. Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins is the guest this time around and what a job she does on Teardrop. She also does great on the druggy weirdness of Black Milk, which this blog is named after, the abysmal redux version Black Melt. Skip that, honestly, it's dire. Her crowning moment will be discussed in a bit though. Horace Andy delivers the goods again too, Angel may be his magnum opus, though Man Next Door (which, thematically, is the album's paranoid centrepiece for me) is also well worth a listen. The most interesting 'cameo' of them all is on Mezzanine in the form of Sarah Jay singing on Dissolved Girl, the soundtrack to the angriest sex you've ever had. That song's worth hearing just for the explosion of guitars in the middle, gets me headbanging every time - and I'm really not the headbanging type.
I'd like to dedicate a paragraph to the album's unofficial closer, Group Four. Now, an alternate version of Exchange which appears midway through the album as the first chance to rest that you get, with Horace Andy singing over it is actually the final track, but fuck that, Group Four is Mezzanine's true ending. Elizabeth Fraser and 3D duet on one of the greatest songs ever recorded. I genuinely struggle to believe human beings created it, it's so...perfect. Everything is as it should be, in its right place. Every element of the album comes together in a jaw-dropping climax, something finally gives and there's a nuke of guitars, distortion, drums and rushing vocals and the whole thing just gets faster...and faster, and faster, and faster, until it's all over and you feel absolutely exhausted. Please, if you listen to no other Massive Attack song in your life, make it Group Four.
I should point out that I played Angel for a friend semi-recently (I really need to start using names...) and he said it didn't do anything for him. I spent a while trying to work out why and I got my answer. It was listened to on a laptop, no bass whatsoever. You must listen to this stuff with a good bass output, bass is one of MA's key ingredients and without it, the effect just won't work. Just a heads up. Top five albums ever, Mezzanine.
Key Cuts: The whole thing. No? Ok...Angel; Teardrop; Inertia Creeps; Dissolved Girl; Mezzanine; Group Four.
Isn't that a brilliant cover? Anyway I'm going to be brief with 100th Window as I'm still to fully digest it, it's not my favourite of the albums. I have heard it all the way through twice and while it's still brilliant, it's just so inferior to all that preceded it. Sinead O'Connor is the guest, she does a terrific job on two of my favourites from 100th Window: A Prayer For England and What Your Soul Sings, the first post on here is named for that song, we have officially come full circle!
This is a solo project from 3D essentially, which is where the problem lies I think. My main issue with the album is that it feels so...inhuman, detached, electronic. No organic instruments that I can remember which just kills the whole thing for me. Horace Andy does fine, Del Naja/3D does fine too, but it's just not a highlight for me. Yet.
Key Cuts: Future Proof; What Your Soul Sings; Butterfly Caught; A Prayer For England; Small Time Shot Away; Antistar....hey, maybe I like this album more than I thought, I love all of these tunes. Ha.
Well, here we are, the present day. I haven't heard Heligoland in full yet, but I have heard Paradise Circus and Flat Of The Blade, which is interesting for two reasons: it has Guy Garvey on vocals, and the song makes you feel physically sick, literally. It's so jarring. Guess you can love that or hate it. Paradise Circus is amazing, by the way. So hypnotic and...sexy. Give that a go for sure. Massive Attack are in studio recording their next album as I write this and it will herald the return of Tricky!! Great things are coming, friends. I should say here, Daddy G (forgotten his real name) is the second half of MA at the moment and I haven't mentioned him once. He's great. Ok I need to leave soon so let's leave it there. I've taken the liberty of crafting a little playlist if I've caught your interest, I hope you'll at least give one tune a go. Here's to Massive Attack, one of the greatest bands of all time.
1. Safe From Harm
2. Teardrop
3. Three
4. Angel
5. Protection
6. Be Thankful For What You've Got
7. Karmacoma
8. What Your Soul Sings
9. I Against I
10. Dissolved Girl
11. Unfinished Sympathy
12. Butterfly Caught
13. Daydreaming
14. Paradise Circus
15. Sly
16. Bullet Boy
17. Heat Miser
18. Hymn Of The Big Wheel
19. Mezzanine
20. Group Four
