In 1991, a laid-back Bristol collective known as Massive Attack roused themselves to unleash their debut album, Blue Lines. Now seen as a milestone in British dance music, the album is historically regarded as the prototype of trip-hop. It paved the way for two acclaimed debut albums in that vein—Portishead’s Dummy (1994) and Tricky’s Maxinquaye (1995)—as well as the more refined beats of acts like Morcheeba and Zero 7.

While Blue Lines nods to older genres like funk, jazz fusion, old-school hip-hop, and dub reggae, it sounded like the birth of something entirely new upon its release: a merging of the rootsy and the sophisticated, the soulful and the state-of-the-art, the past and the future. The album is bright, clear, and sharp, with standout songs that sound utterly unlike anything before or since in their seamless blending of propulsive beats, brooding melodies, and dark atmospherics. Marvel at the epic sweep of the defining 'Unfinished Sympathy,' the menacing thrust of 'Safe from Harm,' and the narcotic sway of 'Daydreaming'—songs that have influenced generations of electronic musicians, from Radiohead, Moby, and Unkle, to Air, Hot Chip, and Burial, and on to contemporary artists as diverse as The xx and Emeli Sandé. Blue Lines is a classic in every sense: a dance album you can’t dance to, a club classic for when the clubs close, but ultimately, it’s insanely rousing nonetheless.