Nick Hoad

At first listening, Massive Attack seems to be another band whose influence I’d been underestimating until now. The slick, sampled beats and minimal electronics sound both familiar and modern, despite the fact that the album (which I’ve never heard before) came out over 30 years ago. They specifically reminded me of some of the music my course-mates made over the time we were at uni together, and indeed the kind of music I’ve become more interesting in producing recently. Hymn of the Big Wheel especially sounds very much like certain tracks by one of my top three artists, Ben Prunty, despite predating them by around 25 years.

I’m doing my best to engage with these albums on their own terms, so as to make my lack of experience with trip hop as little of an issue as possible. The emphasis on the lyrics was unexpected at first, but it quickly grew on me, mainly because it was entirely different from what’s come before in this project. The focus seems to be on crafting complex yet digestible rhymes. Some of them are more successful than others; shoehorning an extra syllable into “circle” to make it (sort of) rhyme with “spherical” was a particularly bad culprit, but most are much better. It also makes a change to have the subject matter be a hazy wash of words which evoke a kind of urban daydream.

The main issue I have with Blue Lines is a complaint which has established itself as a regular at this point; lack of variety. The first five tracks were not only quite repetitive in themselves, lyrics notwithstanding, but quite similar to each other as well, all being laid back and low-key. Once the lyrics run out, the tracks have a tendency to carry on for another minute or so, offering very little that’s new and interesting in that time. Luckily, the sixth track, Unfinished Sympathy is more energetic, less repetitive, and broke the album out of its lethargic rut. It also introduces a lush string section and a chord progression that’s very reminiscent of the kind of thing I would write today. Daydreaming continued that trend, but Lately was the very definition of a filler track, entirely unmemorable and bringing almost nothing to the table. The aforementioned final track, Hymn of the Big Wheel, is the most unique track of the nine, and a fairly strong finisher, although it too suffers to an extent from the problem of an overly long ending in which not much happens that’s new.

Despite that last paragraph of complaints, I did enjoy Blue Lines, and its influence on many of the musicians I admire, and by extension me, bears repeating. Certainly, it’s a hell of a lot better than the previous two.

Favourite Song: Unfinished Sympathy

Next Time: Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols.