MASSIVE ATTACK Blue Lines (Wild Bunch) RARE UK Limited Edition 1st Press MINT

	£		62
	$		82

MASSIVE (ATTACK) Blue Lines (Wild Bunch WBRLX1) RARE UK Limited Edition 1st Pressing MINT
RARE limited-edition UK first pressing of Massive Attack`s genre-defining debut album "Blue Lines" on Wild Bunch Records (April 1991). Group name stated as "Massive" on the mailer-type outer sleeve in protest against the then-ongoing Iraq War: Thanks, Tony!
"Without going OTT with superlatives, Massive put current changes on the dancefloor in perspective and map out blueprints for what must surely come next. After 'Blue Lines' the boundaries separating soul, funk, reggae, House, classical, hip-hop and space-rock will be blurred forever." - Dele Fadele in NME, April 1991.
"You can see why people missed all this – for all its gloominess, Blue Lines sounds like an incredibly confident album, scarcely putting a foot wrong as it lopes off down its own path. But the darkness of Blue Lines would go on to consume at least some of the people who made it. In 2010, DJ Pete Tong was granted a restraining order against Shara Nelson, who claimed in court to be both his wife and the mother of his child. The same year, Claude "Willy Wee" Williams, the forgotten rapper who featured on Five Man Army, was jailed for armed robbery. In a different way, it also enveloped Massive Attack's subsequent career. Their albums got more forbidding and claustrophobic, while the old bickering continued: by 2005, only Del Naja and Horace Andy were left, although Marshall later rejoined. They continue to make remarkable music, perhaps because they never felt impelled to copy what they'd done on Blue Lines. Then again, as umpteen lesser producers found out, copying Blue Lines was impossible." - Alexis Petridis in The Guardian, December 2012.
PLEASE NOTE: I bought this album at the time of its release. The record itself was left sealed for more than twenty-five years, until I noticed that the shrink-wrap had contracted over time, slightly warping the cover in the process. Upon removing the shrink-wrap, I saw that the previously unplayed record had also been considerably warped due to the pressure: The record will not lie completely flat on a turntable. I play-tested the record exactly once, and it is nonetheless fully playable without any skips or jumps whatsoever and sounds absolutely pristine. Both the outer mailer, as well as the inner sleeve are perfect. When bidding, please take the above stated points into account.
GRADING:
MINT(-) OUTER "MAILER" SLEEVE. Please see photos for details.
- Pristine outer mailer-style cardboard sleeve, opened two or three times in all. Perfect.

MINT- COVER in near-perfect condition. 
- Untouched laminated sleeve, only removed from its shrink wrap a few months ago.
- Minor waviness of sleeve due to previously being enclosed in shrink wrap. Otherwise perfect.
- Includes the original, full-colour inner sleeve in perfect MINT(-) condition.

MINT- RECORD, pure audio perfection.
- Perfect vinyl on both sides, with impeccable audio reproduction throughout.
- The record was bought new at the time of release. It has been played exactly once, ever.
- Significant warping to the record, as per description above. However, the lp is fully playable, with no skips or jumps.
- No hairlines, scuffs or any other visible signs of previous play at all!
- Original first-pressing dark blue Wild Bunch Records labels with no spindle wear whatsoever.
- The matrix stamps in the run-off grooves read "WB R LP 1 A-1 J-1 - :" and "WBR LP 1 B-1 U-1- :".
- This record is hereby fully certified to be a limited-edition first UK pressing of "Blue Lines", released in April 1991.