I FINALLY Finish With Massive Attack By Spinning 100th Window, A Mostly Mundane Musical Effort.

The Good: A few decent songs, Musically interesting, More creative than most Massive Attack albums
The Bad: A lot of the same type pieces, More vague than engaging.
The Basics: All right, but not great, 100th Window gives Massive Attack a more profound female voice to lead the best songs.


It is official; now that I have made my way through the entire album discography of Massive Attack, I feel confident in saying I am not a fan. It is strange that I mention this at the beginning of my review to 100th Window, a Massive Attack album that solves the problems of many of the other albums by the group. Instead of being bass-driven and closer to rap/hip-hop, 100th Window explores the electronica side of trip-hop with most of the vocals driven by Sinead O'Connor.

In some of my other reviews, I have compared Massive Attack to Moby, mostly because the potentially more apt comparison to Bjork is one I am hesitant to make because of my loathing for her incomprehensible musical experiments. Moby might be a more apt comparison if for no other reason than the music on 100th Window is actually musical and illustrates a strong sense of surrealism and mood. It is, perhaps, best likened to the tracks on the Moby album Play: The B-sides (reviewed here!).

With only nine tracks, clocking in at 73:59, 100th Window represents the musical vision of Robert Del Naja. Of the original trio that made Massive Attack, only Del Naja returns for this album. To his credit, though he wrote all nine songs and produced the album as well. In addition to arranging the strings, he also provides some vocals on the album. Whatever else one might suggest about the album, it does seem Robert Del Naja was granted a remarkable amount of control to explore music creatively or as creatively as he sought to.

The result is an album that has an orchestral and electronic sound to it, with virtually every track blending into a murky, consistent bassline that combines synthesizers, bass and drums with violins, traditional pianos and additional production elements. 100th Window sounds like mood music for the background of a murky club scene film. The vocals are secondary to the sound and feel of the album, which are slow, mellow and indistinct. Unlike the worst of Massive Attack, though, the indistinct quality leads to a buzzed, submerged feeling as opposed to the sense of utter boredom.

When the lyrics break through, which they tend to do best with Sinead O'Connor's vocals, it seems Massive Attack has something to say. The poetics tend to be invocations to open to feeling the full range of human emotions. For example, on "What Your Soul Sings," O'Connor clearly vocalizes "Don't be afraid / Open your mouth and say / Say what your soul sings to u / Your mind can never change / Unless u ask it to / Lovingly re-arrange / The thoughts that make u blue / So make your choice joy / The Joy belongs to u." The rhyme scheme might be simple, but it is better than a song about wasting life or accepting the fate of being a loser. Instead, the melodic tune invokes a feeling of passion for life and a commitment to turn away from darkness and doubt. As they say, that's all good.

Similarly, "A Prayer For England" is a fairly direct song of hope, leading the listener to believe that no matter what else one might think about Massive Attack, Del Naja's version of it is at the very least hopeful for the future. Sadly, the self-help version of Massive Attack is somewhat more limited on tracks like "Special Cases." The Massive Attack simplicity of human relationships is reduced to "Don't tell your man what he don't do right / Nor tell him all the things / That make you cry / But check yourself for your own shit / And don't be making out that it's all his . . ." ("Special Cases"). Much of the album is plagued by such oversimplifications, that one can simply change their mind as easily as the blinking of the eyes.

Lyrically, though, Massive Attack might well reach its poetic zenith on the album's final track, "Antistar." On that song, Del Naja manages to create some striking visuals with lines like ". . . Blind / Me with flashbulbs / And puzzle me with syllables / Back to sleep . . . More sweet nacrossis . . . U can shoot me hurricanes / don't spare me the details" ("Antistar"). It is a strong set of deep, moody lines that form an intriguing picture for analysis and, perhaps the worse aspect of it is that the vocals are almost entirely sublimated by the instrumentals, which include a surprisingly direct guitar riff. The writing, though, is far more meaningful than on some Massive Attack albums and rather pleasantly is not self-referential in the way the band has been at times.

Vocally, 100th Window is a blend of voices between Sinead O'Connor, Robert Del Naja and Horace Andy (though which tracks belong to which male vocalist is not clear on the liner notes). O'Connor gets three solid tracks of her own to sing on and her vocals are the clearest and most powerful on the album when she sings "What Your Soul Sings," "Special Cases," and "A Prayer For England." Most of the vocals are around the same volume level as the instrumentals, making them difficult to hear and understand.

The hyperbole of this is on "Butterfly Caught," which processes the vocals through a production element that makes the entire thing sound computerized. It is musical - to be fair - but it is hardly understandable. As a result, most of the tracks blend together somewhat anonymously with the vocals simplistically bleeding into one another with nothing terribly distinct or noteworthy.

Similarly, the instrumentals are instantly more creative than 90% of pop-rock music. The blend of synths and strings creates a wonderfully subdued but intense mood for the listener. The problem is that all of the songs on 100th Window share the same mood, so they sound alike and melt together in a way that leaves one wondering just what they have actually heard when they play the album over and over again.

That might as well be the death knell of Massive Attack, at least for me; when they aren't being thuggish and loud, they are being dull and creative within such a limited niche as to be boring. 100th Window is an excellent example of both their strengths and weaknesses in this regard. Ultimately, though, it's too much of a liability for me.

The best track is "What Your Soul Sings," the low point is "Everywhen" for no other reason than after listening to this album more than nine times, I can't for the life of me remember how that tracks sounds or what it said.

For other Massive Attack albums, please visit my reviews of:
Blue Lines
Protection
Mezzanine
Collected

4/10

For other music reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Massive Attack's Worthwhile Debut: Blue Lines FINALLY Justifies Massive Attack's Existence To Me!

The Good: Some decent vocals, Some intriguing lyrics, Musically interesting
The Bad: Some of the rhymes are a bit stale, Short
The Basics: Lyrically and aurally interesting, Blue Lines is a bit too self-referencing, but otherwise makes for decent trip-hop music.


The past few days, I have been getting a bit of a fix from the band Massive Attack. It's been a bad trip for me: the songs tend not to be like the lone song that made me intrigued with the group in the first place. As a result, I've been suffering quite a bit as I listen to my stereo with these albums on repeat throughout my days as I work.

But then, I got in Blue Lines, the first album by Massive Attack. At long last, I finally GET the band. I understand that Massive Attack is a band that pioneered "trip-hop," which is essentially hip-hop meets electronica/techno, but the other albums of theirs I've listened to have been sub-par mush. I've been sore because I started my musical study of Massive Attack with their "Best Of" album, which I bought and was thoroughly underwhelmed by. So, I've been going back to try to find how they managed to get as far as they did because five albums is no slouching career. Blue Lines finally makes it clear to me that the group is not without talent; they simply used that talent and went in a boring, disappointing direction. On Blue Lines, Massive Attack is interesting, vibrant and even has moments of articulation which are pretty decent.

With only nine tracks, clocking in at a slim 45:12, Blue Lines was the Massive Attack album that I came to without knowing any of the tracks from before my exploration of the band. Before I picked up Collected, I had been drawn in by the single “Protection” and the song "Teardrop" is the theme song to House, M.D. So, I knew and appreciated the least number of tracks coming in to Blue Lines and it's a much tighter album than the other Massive Attack outings I have heard. First, this album is mostly co-written by the men of Massive Attack, with only one track being written by someone not at all associated with the trio ("Be Thankful For What You've Got"). Massive Attack is credited with vocals on three of the tracks as well, which is not bad for an album by this group. It's still strange for me to listen to a band that contracts out for the singing. That's just weird as far as I'm concerned!

What's weirder on Blue Lines is that it is unclear what the band does other than co-write the songs. There are no credits in the liner notes for instrumentals or production. Moreover, none of the three members of the band are credited with any of the mixing. What exactly do the guys do, then, other than write and occasionally sing?! And what makes "Be Thankful For What You've Got" a Massive Attack album if they do none on there?!

Mostly, Blue Lines is a good album, though, with fairly decent lyrics. The obvious exception to this is "Five Man Army," which follows the insipid tradition of singers rapping about themselves with lines like, "A turbo turbo and chant with a charge / Addy, Daddy G wild bunch crew at large /Don't call me an officer just call me a sarge / Mashing up the country planning also abroad / Plan to go to America when I get a visa card." That's a pet peeve of mine, but also it shows a severe lack of imagination in my book, like bands that claim they are huge on their first album. When the best thing you have to sing about is the members of your own band, one suspects that you'll be singing to a rather limited audience. There's something about songs that are self-referencing that bugs me in exactly the same way as paying to see a movie in the theater and being bombarded with commercials (not previews, but actual commercials) beforehand.

As I said, most of the lyrics are better and the album opens with vocals by Shara Nelson on "Safe From Harm," a slow piece filled with longing that is actually astonishingly good. She is lends her soprano voice to the full weight of emotion behind the lines "Midnight ronkers / City slickers / Gunmen and maniacs / All will feature on the freakshow / And I can't do nothing 'bout that, no / But if you hurt what's mine / I'll sure as hell retaliate / You can free the world you can free my mind / Just as long as my baby's safe from harm tonight" ("Safe From Harm"). Unlike many Massive Attack songs, "Safe From Harm" has something it is trying to say and it is sung directly and clearly.

Another decent track by the lyrics is "Lately." The song tells an emotive story that resonates. Sung by Shara Nelson, the song tells the story of one who has been left and is feeling the separation. There is a fairly universal, reminiscing quality to the poetics, like "You been acting like a cat on a hot tin roof / Something's on your mind that you can't share / You never used to hide your feelings from me /Keepin secrets I don't understand / Lately baby where, where did we go wrong" ("Lately"). The rest of the song has a somewhat haunting and repetitive bassline that makes it hypnotic, but does not undermine the lyrics, which is decent.

When not singing, Massive Attack seems to be content to let Shara Nelson vocalize on Blue Lines. She appears on four tracks, lending her soprano voice to the produced instrumentals and basslines to offer real contrast. There is contrast, as well, from Horace Andy, who appears on three tracks, mostly to do rapping and his deep voice is interesting, even if some of the lyrics he raps are entirely inane.

Instrumentally, the songs on Blue Lines are also more interesting. "Unfinished Sympathy" has a great beat that is upbeat and obviously produced, but it is set wonderfully against a string orchestra that offers a wonderful, dancable sound. Indeed, it's hard not to listen to the song and rock a little in one's seat or get up and dance. As well, it has some pianos that come in and mix well with Shara Nelson's vocals.

As well, "Daydreaming" seems more like a classic Dance track and I suspect that Massive Attack had some crossover appeal in the clubs for that (not my scene, so I can't speak authoritatively to that). But "Daydreaming" and Blue Lines (the track) sound good as far as the instrumentals which are more electronica/techno than some of the other tracks.

Blue Lines shakes up the somewhat stale sounds of techno and hip hop and it is easy to see why Massive Attack got more albums after this one: they seem to have a talent for mixing tracks that have a beat and am interesting sound to them. It's too bad they took that potential and went the way they did.

The best track is "Safe From Harm," the low point is "Five Man Army."

For other Massive Attack albums, please visit my reviews of:
Protection
Mezzanine
Collected

6.5/10

Check out how this album stacks up against others I have reviewed by visiting my Music Review Index Page where the reviews are organized from Best to Worst!

© 2013, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Massive Attack's Mezzanine: It Sounds All Right, But Adds Up To Very Little.

The Good: Moments of sound, Moments of vocals
The Bad: Monotonous, Frequently incomprehensible or thuggish, Frontloaded
The Basics: Early moments of musical intrigue are undone by a bland and repetitive second half on Mezzanine, another trip-hop bore.


Even as I write this review of the Massive Attack album Mezzanine, I find myself thinking that at some point I am likely to look back at my reviews of the albums of Massive Attack and thing "I was a bit hard on them." I doubt this will be any consolation to them, but I think I am to the point where I can admit that trip-hop, at least the Massive Attack version of it, is not my cup of tea.

Even after listening to one of their "Best Of" albums and other albums by Massive Attack, I think I was hoping for something different when picking up Mezzanine. Trip-hop appears to be the genre of mumbled techno music for stoners. I began to write a sentence comparing trip-hop to rap in the genesis stages, but the truth is it formed a muddled analogy: trip-hop and rap/hip-hop seem to have about the same value on production elements while Massive Attack's trip-hop employs a wider array of instrumentals, actual melodies, and does not seem to be so much about getting the listener to dance, sway or knock up bitches (Yo!), but rather to lay there in the cloud of one's own weed smoke and get mellow. That's the best I've got: rap and hip-hop promote an active drug culture, trip-hop is the lazy stoner's music to get high by. And unlike something like Daniel Powter (eponymous debut reviewed here!) this style never seemed to cross over into the mainstream Top 40. A real shame, that.

With eleven tracks, coming in at 63:46, Mezzanine is Massive Attack's laziest album yet - at least of the ones I have reviewed. The trio of Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall and Andrew Vowles contributed the least original content to this work of any of their albums to date. Of the eleven songs, only eight are by the trio and one of the other ones ("Exchange") is repeated twice on the album. As near as I can gather, "Exchange" is based on an Isaac Hayes track (written by Hilliard and Garson) and "Man Next Door" might be based on a song by The Cure. The liner notes to this album are not terribly useful, as they include large photographs of beetles and Rorschach ink blots as opposed to things like lyrics.

Sadly, though, in addition to only writing or (mostly) co-writing eight of the tracks, members of the trio that comprises the core of Massive Attack is credited with co-programming the album and playing only the keyboards. Members of the band play no other instruments and two of the three provide vocals, but on which songs is unclear. They hire out to Elizabeth Fraser, Sara Jay and Horace Andy for some of the vocals.

The album Mezzanine is characterized by poor lyrics sung in an ill-defined way. On "Man Next Door," for example, the lead vocalist sounds like he is being tormented, perhaps by being crushed at inopportune moments while singing the song. The only saving grace for the song is that it doesn't seem to have any creative input from any member of the band (except perhaps in the singing).

"Group Four" is indicative of the inane lyrics the group came up with on this outing. I like poetry, but I suppose I like my poetry to make some sense and say something, other than "dude, I am so high right now!" That's the best I can get out of such lines as "A flask I drink of sober tea / While relay cameras monitor me / And the buzz surrounds it does / Buzz surrounds / Buzz surrounds / Closed eyed sky wide open / Unlimited girl unlimited sigh / Elsewhere / Indefinitely / Far away / Magnifies and deepens / Ready to sing /My sixth sense peacefully placed on my breath / And listening" ("Group Four"). Moreover, no matter what poetry might appear on the page, it is hardly presented in a melodic or intriguing way.

As with their other albums, the group seems obsessed with at least trying one ridiculously simple rap and on this album it is Mezzanine. The group doesn't seem to have anything special to say on the song though and instead it becomes another blase song with boring rhymes like "You'd agree it's a typical high / You fly as you watch your name go by / And once the name goes by / Not thicker than water nor thicker than mud / And the eight k thuds it does / Sunset so thickly / Let's make it quiet and quickly / Don't frown / It tastes better on the way back down" (Mezzanine). Add to that Mezzanine is terribly repetitive with the line "All these have flaws" being repeated far too many times to be even aurally interesting by the end.

The exception to the inane lyrics comes on "Dissolved Girl." On that track, Sara Jay hauntingly sings "I need a little love to ease the pain / It's easy to remember when it came / 'Cause it feels like I've been / I've been here before / You are not my savior / But I still don't go / Feels like something / That I've done before / I could fake it / But I still want more" ("Dissolved Girl") and it connotes a strong sense of desire and a very basic human need to connect. The song works beautifully, despite a somewhat limited rhyme scheme.

The instrumental tracks on Mezzanine show a limited sense of musical ability which is better than the alternative, I suppose. The synths on "Exchange" are melodic at worst, though the drum track gets tiresome. The instrumentals are mildly reminiscent of tracks by Moby and they work well to establish a mood that is consistent with the rest of the album, save that there are no garbled vocals overwhelming them.

As with their other albums, these songs are collections of computerized electronic music sounds played at a slow tempo. This is exactly what one might expect the soundtrack to be in a film as it slowly pans through a crackhouse. For those of us not into that sort of thing, it's pretty boring. This album is perhaps best known for "Teardrop," which is the theme song to the television series House, M.D. It's not worth picking up this album for just the one song.

The album opens well, but after eleven listens to the album, everything after "Inertia Creeps" is musical jelly and entirely forgettable. It's hard to get excited about an album where the best tracks (the only ones on the "Best Of" album) are all right up front. Indeed, for those considering this album, one might as well go with Collected instead; the group's idea of the strongest tracks are on there and they are the most memorable of the vague, indistinct tracks on this album.

The best track is "Angel," the low point is "Man Next Door."

For other Artist Of The Month works, please check out my reviews of:
Actually - Pet Shop Boys
Seal (2) – Seal
Forty Licks - The Rolling Stones

4.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Massive Attack Makes The Argument For Electronica From Women With Protection.

The Good: Moments of sound, Moments of vocals, mostly the title track
The Bad: Monotonous, Frequently incomprehensible or thuggish, Short
The Basics: Ponderous and dull when it is not being loud and rap-like, Protection is a disappointment to those with an appreciation for a broad musical spectrum.


I'm a pretty straightforward person in a lot of ways, especially with music. I don't put on affects and I like music that has something to say and does it well. So, when I first encountered Massive Attack - by catching their video for the song “Protection” a few months back - I was actually excited: they seemed to meet that basic criteria of having something to say and being very genuine and straightforward. I got my wake-up call from the band with Collected (reviewed here!). Still, I decided to give the group another try and I went back and found the album Protection.

After eight listens to this Massive Attack album, I think I am ready to make the most sexist generalization of my reviewing career: only women should be making electronic music. I grew up listening to albums that pushed the pop-techno borders, like Pet Shop Boys Actually (reviewed here!), but with Massive Attack, every track that is fronted by a female singer is palatable (at worst) and those fronted by the men of Massive Attack are either boring or thuggish in their sound. Okay, to be fair, perhaps the statement ought to be: Massive Attack should only make music when it is fronted by a female vocalist or is producing instrumental pieces.

With ten tracks, clocking in at 49:04, Protection appears to be mostly the work of Massive Attack with whomever they currently collaborate with. Unlike the liner notes to most albums, Protection does not state anything so directly as "Massive Attack is:." However, we suppose from the thanks and credits that Massive Attack is the trio of Mushroom, Daddy G, and 3-D who somehow correspond with (from the writing credits) Vowles, Del Naja, and Marshall (who are the only three consistent elements on the nine original tracks on the album). That trio created nine of the ten tracks on Protection (the final track is a live version of The Doors' "Light My Fire"). Massive Attack co-wrote nine of the ten tracks, though members of the band only provide vocals to three of the ten tracks. For the rest, they turn the singing over to Tracey Thorn (“Protection” and ""Better Things"), Nicolette ("Three" and "Sly"), and Horace Andy ("Spying Glass"). There are two instrumental pieces with pianos performed by Craig Armstrong ("Weather Storm" and "Heat Miser").

As anyone familiar with my reviews might be able to figure out: I'm having some trouble figuring out how much of the album is actually the creative work of the trio of Massive Attack and the only conclusion I think is fair to draw is that this is a remarkably collaborative band. While they take a co-producing and co-mixing credit, there seems to be nothing that the trio does all on their own. "Collaborative" is a great way for me to phrase it, I think. The only other way that comes to mind is "uncreative." Perhaps Massive Attack is just three guys who like playing with a mixing board and writing a few things, but they do seem to be somewhat deficient on either the follow-through or the polishing, so a lot of people outside the credited three are involved in all aspects of making Protection.

That said, the result is as mixed as the players. Consistent throughout the album are production sounds which include drum loops, samples and generally a synth and bass track to create music. Even “Protection,” which has an impressive poem to accompany the music, does not have the strongest melody to it. Instead, this is largely a collection of instrumental sounds put together, often with lyrics, to a murky club beat. One imagines smoky, sweaty places whenever this album is being played.

That said, it's not all bad. The title track, “Protection,” is an amazing song and it starts with t he lyrics. Opening the album with this song is somewhat deceptive, though, because it suggests to the listeners that the album might be a collection of musical stories that resonate with such deep lines as "This girl I know needs some shelter / She don't believe anyone can help her / She's doing so much harm, doing so much damage / But you don't want to get involved / You tell her she can manage / And you can't change the way she feels / But you could put your arms around her . . . I stand in front of you / I'll take the force of the blow / Protection" (“Protection”). the song is about reaching out, regardless of gender barriers or relationships and helping one another. It sounds amazing (Thorn provides haunting and excellent soprano vocals) and is an instantly memorable song.

Unfortunately, it runs right into "Karmacoma." Karmacoma is a more rap-like track (Massive Attack is, I am told, a pioneer in the musical genre of "trip-hop," which I suppose could be music to get stoned by) with heavier and very masculine vocals. "Karmacoma" is a track that I listened to several times before breaking down and actually looking up the lyrics. The whole idea of "music to get high by" is somewhat reinforced by the lyrics to this song, which consistently repeats the title and "Jamaica aroma," in between such pleasant lines as "Money like it's paper with faces I remember / I drink on a daily basis / Though it subtle cools my temper / It never cools my temper / Walking through the suburbs though not exactly lovers / You're a couple, 'specially when your body's doubled / Duplicate, then you wait for the next Kuwait" ("Karmacoma"). What's it about? Beats me: and I have a degree that includes training in literary analysis. The rappers seem to be stringing together any number of words that rhyme regardless of whether or not they have a statement to make.

This is pretty much standard for Protection, though "Sly" is a pleasant exception to that. With lines like "I feel like a thousand years have passed / I'm younger than I used to be / I feel like the world is my home at last /I know everyone that I meet / Somewhere in the music I can hear the bells / I heard a thousand years before / There's always more," "Sly" is deeply poetic and well-performed by Nicolette. The track has an almost Indian quality to it with her vocals reaching high and mixing beautifully with the soaring synthesizers. As well, the lines are clear and she does seem to have something to say.

The only other tracks that are even listenable on Protection are the two instrumental tracks and the cover. I am not certain the world truly needed a live version of "Light My Fire" set to a dance beat, but at least it has some originality to it and it sounds different from everything else on the album. It does take some creativity to remix a classic song and though this is not the best cover song I have ever heard, it is not bad.

The instrumental tracks, similarly, show some musical ability which is nice. The pianos on "Weather Storm" are musing and quiet against a produced drum track and bassline. They are reminiscent of tracks by Moby and they work beautifully to establish a mood that is consistent with the rest of the album, save that there are no garbled vocals overwhelming them. Similarly, "Heat Miser" is not bad and shows some musical ability.

Largely, though, these songs are collections of computerized electronic music sounds played at a slow tempo. This is exactly what one might expect the soundtrack to be in a film as it slowly pans through a crackhouse. For those of us not into that sort of thing, it's pretty boring.

The best track is “Protection,” the low point is "Spying Glass" with its radically computer produced vocals.

For other Artist Of The Month works, visit my reviews of:
Opiate - Tool
It Ain’t Easy: The Essential Recordings - Wilson Pickett
The King Of Rock: The Complete ‘50’s Recordings - Elvis Presley

5/10

For other music reviews, check out my organized Music Review Index Page!

© 2013, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Ethereal Electronica: Massive Attack's Collected Leaves The Listener On The Fence (My Next Artist Of The Month!)

The Good: "Protection," Interesting sound, Album duration
The Bad: Repetitive mood, Male vocals, Narcolepsy-inducing, Obscured/boring lyrics
The Basics: "Bored Now," Massive Attack's Collected drains me after fourteen listens with its largely unmemorable tracks that play the same trick over and over again.


To expand my perspective and my c.d. collection, I have recently started listening to newer artists and giving them a shot. So, in my eagerness to hear what young people are being grabbed by these days, I recently gave Metro Station (reviewed here!) a chance and when I was pretty much done with that, I sat down and turned my television on. It was almost like prophecy: I had a short-lived music video channel on my local HD station and they played a video I had never seen with a song I had never heard. The song was "Protection," by the group Massive Attack. I had a familiarity with Massive Attack only from the opening credits to House, M.D.

Always eager to stimulate the economy - actually, desperate for some new music on my drive home from Las Vegas - I decided to give Massive Attack a chance and unlike my usual modus operandi of starting at the beginning, I opted to go right for the "Best Of" album. In this case, the album is called Collected and it acts as an anthology and introduction to Massive Attack for those who want the supposed best of their body of work. And, based on that . . . mmmhhhhmmm . . . it's a tough sell.

The thing is, the first time I listened to the Moby album Play: The B-Sides (reviewed here!), I knew I was listening to something fresh, new and also enduring and truly great. I've spun Collected a total of fourteen times now and the tracks range from the ethereal and unmemorable (I swear, everything after "Protection" on the album is a blur) to rap/hip hop like annoying ("Karmacoma," "Inertia Creeps"). Sure, there are the truly amazing songs, "Protection" and "Teardrop" (which, come to think of it has moments it actually sounds like Annie Lennox's cover of "Only Castles Burning"), but they are squeezed into the middle surrounded by songs that either want to be some form of techno/hip-hop (I understand the audiophile term is "trip hop") or just . . . well, I'm not sure what they are trying to be, but they end up as boring electronica tracks.

The problem, I've nailed it down, with Massive Attack on Collected is that the band appears to have gone through many incarnations or utilizes a number of different lead singers. The best pieces, hands down, on Collected are all presented with female vocals. So, while I "get" "Karmacoma" and can admit that there are moments it is even mildly catchy, the Robert Del Naja and Tricky are boring, predictable and almost more spoken than sung. This effect gets old, even by the time "Inertia Creeps" comes up because the net effect of the album is to numb the listener into a stupor.

Fortunately Del Naja has moments where he and his co-writers prove they can write. There might not be many, but there are some. Collected is a fourteen track album that clocks out at a substantial 78:45, but leaves the listener wondering just who and what Massive Attack are. It appears that the consistent elements of the group are Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall as writers, with later works influenced by Neil Davidge. Lead vocals are credited to Del Naja and TEN others over the fourteen songs! Is Massive Attack essentially Del Naja and Marshall? The liner notes don't indicate even that much. But what the ear tells us is that when their lyrics are presented by the likes of Elizabeth Fraser ("Teardrop"), Tracey Thorn ("Protection"), or Sinead O'Connor ("What Your Soul Sings") the group sounds like it is actually producing something worthwhile.

The reason I keep coming back to "Protection" is not just because it was the first full song I heard from Massive Attack. The truth is, it is the best this group has got, at least on Collected. Lyrically, it is an emotional powerhouse, telling the story of a person who steps up to do what's right for another, with its lines "This girl I know needs some shelter / She don't believe anyone can help her / She's doing so much harm, doing so much damage / But you don't want to get involved / You tell her she can manage / And you can't change the way she feels / But you could put your arms around her . . . But could you forgive yourself / If you left her just the way /You found her / I stand in front of you / I'll take the force of the blow . . ." ("Protection"). Set to a slow, murky beat with synthesizers and keyboards, "Protection" is illuminated by Thorn's sultry soprano voice. For all the instrumentals do to create a smoky, murky, obscured mood, Thorn's voice cuts through and simply and directly says something to the listener. It is a powerful song and the lyrics are sharp and intelligent and it holds up better than any other song on the album.

The thing is, the rest of the lyrics on the album are either almost indecipherable ("Butterfly Caught"), simple ("Karmacoma") or disproportionately poetic ("Teardrop"). Lyrically, Massive Attack seems to have something with such simple and profound observations as "Love, love is a verb / Love is a doing word / Fearless on my breath /Gentle impulsion / Shakes me makes me lighter / Fearless on my breath" ("Teardrop") but that type of poetic is not the rule on Collected. Instead, far more often what the group has to say is obscured by the synths and production elements that alter the main vocals.

Take, for example, the track "Five Man Army." This track is presented as a pretty inane, self-referencing rap song where half the primary vocals are mumbled through so as to be indecipherable. I had to look up what was being sung at the beginning. But sadly, what is audible is just dull, like "A turbo turbo and chant with a charge / Addy, Daddy G wild bunch crew at large / Don't call me an officer just call me a sarge / Mashing up the country planning also abroad / Plan to go to America when I get a visa card" ("Five Man Army"). It is like five people it took to write the song just picked the most stale and obvious rhymes to say . . . ? By the time the song degenerates into condemning gangsters and capitalism they are so far from whatever point they were trying to make that the social statement seems tacked on.

Instrumentally, songs like "Unfinished Sympathy" seem to do the same thing. Massive Attack seems so proud of being able to use different instruments or sounds that they don't seem to consider what they are producing. The result is a mild cacophony of sound that adds up to very little outside . . . well, noises. What isn't experimentally confused seems to fall into a pretty formulaic pattern of synthesizer beats and murky basses. "Future Proof" is emblematic of this type track, with its high end synths competing with numbly with drum machine snares, beeps and deep bass undertone. The vocals are produced into an amelodic white noise that leaves the listener with no real impression that they have heard anything.

The thing is, upon listening and relistening to Collected I often did not find that I did not like Massive Attack; far from it. Whenever "Teardrop" or "Protection" came on, my ears perked right up and when "Karmacoma" bleated out, I almost always rolled my eyes. But what I liked about Collected was almost entirely undone by the rest of the album leaving virtually no impression. It's sound and notes, but there is little melody or meaning and what lyrics might hold up more often have to be read as opposed to heard.

And as I start my reviewing day today, I just find myself wanting something more; wanting something that leaves an impression, outside just one song.

The best track by far is "Protection," the whole last half of the album is weak tracks.

For other, former, Artist Of The Month reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Hotter Than July - Stevie Wonder
Greatest Hits - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Rumours (2-Disc Version) - Fleetwood Mac

4.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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