Massive Attack: one member’s show of strength

About a dozen years ago Massive Attack had a problem using their name, due to the first Bush-Gulf war, they had to be known as Massive for a time being (re: hit ‘Unfinished Sympathy’). It is a dozen years later, we are on the brink of a second Bush-Gulf war and Massive Attack release their fourth album, five years after ‘Mezzanine; at least, no one is asking them to clip their name this time.

Things have changed within the Bristol collective, as well: Mushroom has of course departed the band and Daddy G (Grant Marshall) swapped work on this album for a parental duty, but 3-D (Robert Del Naja) led ‘100th Window’ to being every bit as masterfully produced as its predecessors are - in places soaring, if not quite reaching, to the height of the glorious debut, ‘Blue Lines’.

Well, one constant is the regular guest vocalist, Horace Andy, who is back on two tracks, ‘Name Taken’ and ‘Everywhen’; the troubled-but-brilliant Sinead O’Connor handles three cuts: seductively whispering on ‘What Your Soul Sings’, gloomily fascinating ‘Special Cases’ and lamenting ‘A Prayer For England’ (a toughened up re-working of ‘Safe From Harm’). 3-D takes on the rest of the vocals, with a certain playing help coming from the members of Lupine Howl (i.e. the sacked Spiritualized members).

‘100th Window’ is richly textured and full of details: Massive remain one of the few outfits that handle vocals equally well as their orchestrations of intricate drum patterns and multifarious arrangements. There are strings and washes, epic proportioned sonics, noises that you can’t identify, so characteristic of this outfit. It’s a dark album and one that requires – as journalists were informed, “You really gotta live with this album for a while and the best if you listen to it on headphones, at first” – certain investment of attentiveness but one that rewards you immensely. (We did as requested and even turned out the lights.)

Some critics have termed this a Massive-lite album but there are several pieces that really annihilate the ugliness, carelessness, evil, (even) humanity for the duration. It is achieved with ingenuity, moods, tempos, melodies, content and inventiveness that are, let’s not beat about the proverbial bush (wouldn’t mind having a go at ‘G-Dub’ Bush though), reined into extraordinary tunes. The first one is ‘Butterfly Caught’ that combines noir instrumentation with an eastern rhythm and strings, taking you deeper into a deprived passion of a starless night.

‘A Prayer For England’ supplies another excuse to get off your senses in the intimacy of a private ‘City Of Bones’, surging into facing your phobias despite its shortness; it clocks in at 5:44 whereas five tracks are over 7 minutes long. ‘Antistar’ provides a full-length climax with an early dirty-funky feel morphing into a psychedelic-Indian-freak-out to please even the most demanding souls. Some minutes later, an extra-track is located, its echo coming like it has travelled across the river Styx.

Massive Attack music still pulses at the downbeat to make a pessimist’s soul dance.

9/10