Product Description

Seminal trip-hoppers Massive Attack's fourth album '100th Window' continues along the same lines as their 1998 release 'Mezzanine'. Hypnotic vocals are fused with dark hip hop rhythms, dub grooves and cinematic samples. Sinead O'Connor lends her vocals to three tracks, along with long term collaborator Horace Andy and Damon Albarn, who provides backing vocals to the track 'Small Time Shot Away'.

Track Listing

1. Future Proof
2. What Your Soul Sings
3. Everywhen
4. Special Cases
5. Butterfly Caught
6. A Prayer For England
7. Small Time Shot Away
8. Name Taken
9. Antistar

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4083 in Music
• Released on: 2003-02-10
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
During the 1990s, Massive Attack were simply untouchable as the most groundbreaking British band for decades. Each of their three studio albums preceding 100th Window were pioneering masterpieces, with 1991's Blue Lines acclaimed as one of the best British albums of all time. Nowadays, Massive Attack aren't so much a "great band" as a "one-man-band", with Robert "3D" Del Naja the only member of the original trio on this album.

100th Window may be Massive Attack's fourth album (on paper, at least), but it's effectively Del Naja's solo debut. Ironically, 100th Window sounds as distinctly Massive Attack-like as any of its predecessors, except the low, slow raps of Daddy G and Mushroom have been replaced by the fragile voice of Sinead O'Connor. Put simply, 100th Window sounds eerily similar to 1998's Mezzanine; it's dark, broody, intense and, at times, quite uncomfortable, with the odd shimmering ray of light allowed to peep through Del Naja's murky nocturnal soundscapes. Occasionally it sounds like Clannad done in a dubwise style (check the impressive "A Prayer For England" or unlikely single "Special Cases"), at others like a late night trip through Bristol's run-down estates in the company of the Grim Reaper.

With such an impressive back catalogue, 100th Window should have been something new, fresh and original, but as it is it's just another dose of Mezzanine's paranoid broodiness. Of course, 100th Window is still a very good record--no-one does darkness with quite the same warmth and murkiness as Massive Attack--but this isn't half the album it could have been. --Matt Anniss

Customer Reviews

Not like any other album you've heard
In my opinion, this album is an absolute masterpiece. There are many things I like about it. The first is that there is no other album in the universe that is anything like it. The second is that the music is so captivating and quality, and the third is that it is best played loud! I'd like to apologise to my neighbours!

This album demands to be listened to. Unlike some other reviews, I don't think this album is repetative, I think it's just the same style of music, like Kraftwerk, only it's nothing like Kraftwerk. It's also nothing like their other albums so it's nice to have a change.

My favourite tracks are :
-Futre proof
-What your soul sings
-Special cases
-Butterfly caught
-A prayer for England
-Small time shot away (my favourite)
-Antistar

Wait a minute, that's most of them. It really is a fantastic album and I suggest it to everyone. 100% recommended.

Worrying times
For me, this album emphasizes the brewing uncertainty after 9/11. It seemed to capture these times with the invasion of Iraq, al-Qaedas televised terrorism and the total chaos of the world. With the sound turned down on the TV it was a perfect soundtrack for the News headlines as the US troops entered Baghdad with Sinead O'Connor giving a fragile delivery on Special Cases prompting us to 'take a look around the world, you see such mad things happening'. The mood continues on Butterfly Caught with Del Naja's fractured vocals, swirling indian style strings and clostraphobic, almost industrial rythymn. The inlay photography lends itself to the mood of the album showing ice-like figures being blown apart, glass body parts in a cold, almost clinical Kraftwerk-esque studio backdrop. There's not much light here to break up the darkness as on Mezzanine - each track is as dark as the other. Sinead O'Connor's gives us her most outstanding performance to-date to an almost desperate sounding plea on A Prayer For England. There's obviously some old Massive Attack style missing but that's not a bad thing. It's just different and a lot darker.

Bleak, eerie and haunting
This must be one of the most distinctive CD's of recent years, with an overwhelming feel of urban alienation prevalent on most tracks. My favourites are the first three, particularly 'Everywhen' with it's characteristic echoing piano-like repeated note and equally echo-laden vocal line. Some of the remainder of the album gets a bit repetitve but my favourite later track is 'Small time shot away' with its eerie hypnotic synthsesizer (I assume it's a synthesizer). Bleak and empty sounding - yes, but that's what makes it an affecting piece of work.