Dummy

Dummy is a perfect record held to a single mood. It made the comedown into an entire aesthetic: spy-film samples and Beth Gibbons' voice suspended over Geoff Barrow's crackle and Adrian Utley's noir guitar. It carried trip-hop to a mass audience without losing a drop of its dread, and it launched a thousand lesser imitations along with a few genuinely good bands. It ranks below the records above only because they cover wider emotional ground at the same quality. Within its one register it is flawless.