tricky's performing

both sunday afternoon and again today the place i was eating lunch had Massive Attack playing. while sunday was just their rediscovered breakthrough song "teardrop," today was the full Mezzanine album. a good album for sure, but i would offer up another Massive Attack album as not only their best, but one of my all time favorite albums...1991's debut Blue Lines. i remember picking this album up at a shabby record shop in rhode island that would sell promo copies of cds for a dollar or two. i had seen a video of theirs on 120 Minutes that intrigued me. before i delved into indierock i was really into hip hop. i still remember seeing that video and being perplexed because here were these people who were essentially rapping and playing dance music, but they were just chilling in a room and where i recognized american hip hop about being a certain lifestyle, i was left wondering what exactly this was about. back then trip-hop hadn't entered the music lexicon and most will point to this record as the first qualifier. it's coming up on a fifteen year anniversary and it still sounds as hyptnotic to me as the first day i picked it up. despite being meticulously crafted it still manages to sound organic, something i think Mezzanine lacks. i have to admit i'm surprised that this isn't the record of theirs resurfacing because i think someone craftier than me could draw allusions between this album and which direction some of todays better popular music has landed.

Massive Attack "Daydreaming"