Blue Lines

Blue Lines slowed sound system culture to walking pace, and in doing so it founded trip-hop and put Bristol on the musical map. Shara Nelson's torch vocals over the band's dread-laden grooves produced the best songs on this entire list; 'Unfinished Sympathy' and 'Safe From Harm' are still untouchable. Its DNA runs through a decade of comedown records that came after. It sits below two instrumental albums only because two of its nine tracks are lesser, but the peaks are as high as anything here.