Trip-Hop Album Reviews

On some of the embedded videos, you’ll have to click on them twice to bring up the actual youtube page to hear them

Well you may have heard of a musical genre known as trip-hop, and you may have become interested in learning what it’s all about. But where should you start? Well, I don’t know where the hell you should start with trip-hop, but I can tell you where I started with it recently. If you want to follow my example then go ahead. In all honesty, these are three of the most highly acclaimed trip-hop albums from three of the most well known artists, so it’s definitely not a bad place to start.

Dummy by Portishead (1994)

I think this is probably the most accessible album of the three. Even people that don’t really like the genre of trip-hop would probably enjoy this album for its agreeable poppy beats fronted by haunting vocals. There is a lot of continuity on this album; if you like one song you’ll probably like them all. It’s not that they all sound the same like a Nickelback greatest hits album, it’s just that Portishead does a good job with developing a very particular style and sticking to it.

While there’s not any great value to the overall lyrical content of Dummy, there are some parts where the lyrics excel, especially on the track “Wandering Star” which bases its chorus on a relatively unknown Biblical allusion; or maybe I’m just reading into it too much saying that there is a Biblical allusion. I can definitely see how the lyrics of “Wandering Star” could be interpreted in different ways to different people. Another song, ” It’s a Fire” probably speaks out lyrically to twenty-something year old girls and homosexual males, as do the lyrics of most of the album’s songs actually (though not with the same passionate fervor as “It’s a Fire”). But there is no cause for worry for us grizzly testosterone loaded men’s men; the beats on Dummy sound great no matter who you are, and it is undeniable that the vocals are very well delivered with a peculiar effortlessness that might just give you a boner. But even for people that love the lyrics (not that I don’t like them; I just don’t love them as they speak mostly from a perspective I can’t relate to), you have to admit that the trippy hip-hop (get it? – Trip-hop!) inspired beats are what make this album what it is – a great album that defined a genre.

Maxinquaye by Tricky (1995)

This album is a bit different than Portishead’s Dummy, yet surprisingly similar at times; in fact, Tricky’s song “Hell is Around the Corner” has the exact same beat as “Glory Box” from Portishead’s album (but I’m getting ahead of myself here, let me back up). The songs on this album, in general, seem much more experimental and expansive than anything on Dummy. That is to say, that while Portishead created a style and stuck with it for a whole album (well, a whole career really), for his debut album Maxinquaye, Tricky was all over the place experimenting with foreign drum beats (“Ponderosa”) and hallucinogenically inspired terror domes (“Strugglin”). Yet, even with all this experimentation, Tricky managed to make an album full of songs retaining two certain distinctions; 1.) They are all trippy, and 2.) They are all hip-hop.

One thing Tricky did borrow from Portishead’s example is the implementation of a lead female vocalist, and she does a great job imitating Portishead’s singer. No, she doesn’t have her own unique style; but seriously, she does a great imitation of the singer from Portishead, and it works great on this album. The beats on this album aren’t solely fronted by haunting female vocals, however, as Tricky himself makes it a point to appear on many of the songs rapping in his unique breathy laid-back style. The combination of imitation Portishead vocals interspersed with Tricky’s rapping adds a little hop to the trip on this album – in other words, it sounds good.

I also find that the lyrics on Maxinquaye are much more entertaining than the lyrics on Dummy. While Portishead’s lyrics are concerned mostly with being strong after a break up and what kind of tampon is most absorbent, Tricky adds a much more hip-hop vibe to his songs with his rapping, and he only sometimes forgets to keep it gangsta.  Tricky’s lyrics seem to cover a greater variety of topics.

For a final note, wherever Portishead kept it simple, Tricky got weird with it – and it sounds pretty cool.

Mezzanine by Massive Attack (1998)

This is probably the most well known album of the three. A few of it’s songs have been used on television and in movies. While I would say that this album is probably the most expertly produced of the three, I would also have to say that it is the most bland. That is not to say that this isn’t a terrific album though; it is. Massive attack have an uncanny ability to create an album full of beats that, when put together, can not even at all refrain from infecting your brain synapses. They do a good job of mixing in heavier industrial beats (“Angel,” “Inertia Creeps,” “Mezzanine”) with more lighthearted chill-out dubs like “Exchange.”

While Massive Attack does take a note from Portishead by throwing a haunting female vocalist on some of Mezzanine‘s more trip-hoppy songs, most of the the vocals on the album are performed by Massive Attack themselves – two obviously British guys that can’t sing very well. But I’m just nitpicking here; the vocals, while not quite to my taste, aren’t really that bad, and they hardly, if at all, detract from the overall musical quality of the songs. In fact, in “Mezzanine” (the song) the vocals work perfectly.

On their album Mezzanine, Massive attack did a great job of capturing a certain theme, and that theme seems to be “I took lsd inside of an industrial factory that is located in an alien space ship.”A lot of songs on this album could just as easily be described as trance as they could be trip-hop, if you ask me. But the fact remains that this is a quality album.

So, to recap on what we’ve learned:

• Dummy by Portishead is the most pop oriented and accessible album of the three; this album defines trip-hop in it’s most basic quality.
• Tricky’s Maxinquaye is a very out-there album that seems to draw influences from Portishead, Massive Attack, and world music. This album doesn’t stick to any particular style; every song is it’s own universe.
• Massive Attack’s classic album Mezzanine, is probably the highest production quality of the three, yet at the same time it sounds a little bland in comparison. This may be because this is Massive Attack’s third (?) album while the other albums mentioned are both debuts, so maybe their ideas weren’t as fresh, or something. This is still a great album though, but I would start with either Dummy or Maxinquaye.