Blue Lines is the debut studio album by English electronic music group Massive Attack,[a] released on 8 April 1991 by Wild Bunch and Virgin Records.

[1] The recording was led by members Grantley "Daddy G" Marshall, Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adrian "Tricky" Thaws, and Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles, with co-production by Jonny Dollar.

Blue Lines was named the 21st greatest album of all time in a 1997 "Music of the Millennium" poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM.

"[6] The group also drew inspiration from concept albums in various genres by artists such as Pink Floyd, Public Image Ltd, Billy Cobham, Wally Badarou, Herbie Hancock and Isaac Hayes.

[10] AllMusic's John Bush also affirmed the album as the "first masterpiece" of what later became known as trip hop, and described it as "filter[ing] American hip-hop through the lens of British club culture, a stylish, nocturnal sense of scene that encompassed music from rare groove to dub to dance.

[10] According to Greg Kot in the 2004 Rolling Stone Album Guide, Blue Lines became "the blueprint" for trip hop, which would later emerge as a commercially popular musical style.

[19] "On its release, Blue Lines felt like nothing else", Alexis Petridis wrote for The Guardian upon the album's 2012 reissue, adding that it "still sounds unique, which is remarkable given how omnipresent trip-hop was to become".

[13] Pitchfork's Miles Raymer, meanwhile, identified Blue Lines as "at its heart ... a hip-hop record", crediting it with being "at the forefront" of the genre's musical progression from "blocky rhythms and minimal arrangements" in the 1980s towards "deep, organic textures" in the 1990s.

"[11] In 1997, Blue Lines was named the 21st greatest album of all time in a "Music of the Millennium" poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM.

[25] The track "Unfinished Sympathy" has also been singled out for praise, being hailed by BBC Radio 2 as "one of the most moving pieces of dance music ever, able to soften hearts and excite minds just as keenly as a ballad by Bacharach or a melody by McCartney.