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Rating:
The 100th window shattered into a thousand pieces. And not just it.
Here I am facing yet another semi-deception, speaking for myself of course, which is this 100th window, another album so eagerly awaited by the "group" that only a few years prior gave birth to that genuine masterpiece I consider "Mezzanine". Everyone back then was wondering: what would they have done "after" Mezzanine? What other horizons would they have opened up? Well, ladies and gentlemen, in my opinion, this album has not met expectations by quite a bit. The album develops along fairly deja-vu trip-hop lines without bringing the slightest novelty in terms of sound, arrangement, or structure, flattening on more than tested schemes (see "Future Proof" or the second "What Your Soul Sing" but we could go on for another 5/6 songs): For goodness' sake, we are always at very high levels in terms of class and refinement in the sounds, but... but NOTHING that gives me goosebumps, NOTHING that makes me jump up in my seat, NOTHING that comes even close to the previous work: all linear, all reasonably calm and, I repeat, already tested (of course the leader's voice in certain pieces, like "Everywhen" or that of S.Connors in "A Prayer For England" always give a slight shiver but it’s still very little). As if fundamentally lacking a certain underlying malaise, a certain emotional tension that the other works managed to convey.
In short, it seems more like an album by the book where they quote and retrace themselves in a formula that, so far, has brought them unprecedented success, but now, with this album, they risk going straight to the console of some "Afterhour" DJ or worse still, as the background of some trendy nightclub from 11 PM to 1 AM, before the rooms really fill up. Sure, the next album "Danny The Dog", will be decidedly better but the suspicion is that our Massive will hardly be able to surprise us again and that the slow and inexorable descending parabola has begun (see PRODIGY or FAT BOY SLIM).
Hope is the last to die, but you know... sooner or later it will be her turn too.
P.S. To hope, I give a 4, to the album a 2... the average is therefore 3.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Future Proof (05:38)
3D :
Borderline cases
Reinforced glass
Absent friends
Passport photos
An elastic past
Empty pocket
They think it is all...
They think it's soul
All wrapped up on a swollen lip
He draws the warm pipe.
Chemicals
Chemicals captured in winter's grip
Turn us on
Seperate the leper
Hungry ghosts
Hungry ghosts
Another imprint
In borrowed clothes
We can be numb
We can be numb
Passing through
Blow blow blow blow
Borderline case
Future proof
Real thin air
Real thin air
Real thin air
02 What Your Soul Sings (06:38)
Don't be afraid
Open your mouth to say
Say what your soul sings to you
Your mind can never change
Unless you ask it to
Lovingly rearrange
The thoughts that make you blue
The things that bring you down
Will mean no harm to you
And so make your choice joy
The joy belongs to you
And when you do
You'll find the one you love is you
You'll find you
Love you
Don't be ashamed no
To open your heart and pray
Say what your soul sings to you
So no longer pretend
That you can't feel it near
That tickle on your hand
That tingle in your ear
And ask it anything
Because it loves you dear
It's your most precious king
If only you could hear
And when you do
You'll find the one you need is you
You'll find you
Love you
03 Everywhen (07:39)
[Horace Andy:]
My love
Your love
Incantations
Struck stars
Like tears fall
The sequence ends
Downtime
Godspeed
Everywhen
We concede
The sequence ends
And begins
Everything
You think you know
Everything
You think you know
You think you know
Blood ties
Blood ties
The sequence ends
04 Special Cases (05:09)
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 sake
And don't be making out like it's all his
Take a look around the world
You see such bad things happening
There are many good men
Ask yourself is he one of them
The deadliest of sin is pride
Make you feel like you're always right
But they're always two sides
It takes two to make love, two to make a life
Take a look around the world
You see such mad things happening
There are few good men
Thank your lucky star that he's one of them
05 Butterfly Caught (07:34)
Weightless falls honeysuckle
Strangers (strange this)
Lights from pages
Paper thin thing
Protected by the naked eye
Pearly sunrise
Nearly worn
Kneeling like a supplicant
Darkened skin
Afraid to see
Radiate
Open lips
Keep smiling for me
Darkened skin
Afraid to see
Radiate
Open lips
Keep smiling for me
Weightless cool honeysuckle
Fair skin freckles
Uncut teeth
Tranquil eyes
Bite my lips
Bite my lips
Shhh
Under your feet
06 A Prayer for England (05:48)
In the name of
And by the power of
The holy spirit
May we invoke your
Intercession for
The children of england
Some of whom have seen
Murder so obscene
Some of whom have been taken
Let not another child be slain
Let not another search be made in vain
Jah forgive us
For forgetting
Jah help us
We need more loving
See the teachers
Are representing you
So badly
That not many can see you
Let not another child be slain
Let not another search be made in vain
Jah calls the ones who's
Beliefs kill children to
Feel the love of you and be healed
And may we all cry too
For representing you
So badly so badly
Jah forgive us
For forgetting
Oh Jah help us
To be forgiving
The teachers are representing you
So badly that not many can see you
Let not another search be made in vain
Let not another child be slain
08 Name Taken (07:49)
Hallways
I see
Always
Icy
Open rooms
Contra-zooms
Pictures may
Faces may
Fade away
Fade away
Brothers then
Get close to them
Step outside
Gunmetal sky
Peel away
Children play
Fade away
Where's the scars
Fade away
Fade away ...
09 Antistar (19:38)
can you lick my wounds please
can you make it numb
kill the pain like cortisone
grant me intimacy
how we'll split your chromazones
yeah...more sweet narcossis.. (repeat)
(meanwhile) i turn a stone i'll find u...
i turn a stone...i'll find you there...
into reflected light i'll stare
u blind me with flashbulbs
and puzzle me with syllables
back to sleep (repeat)
yeah...more sweet narcossis...
i turn a stone i'll find u...
(-instrumental-)
my heads between my knees again
got the needle set to zero
u can shoot me hurricanes
don't spare me of details
yeah...more sweet narcossis... (repeat)
(meanwhile) iconography
iconography
fucks with me
u look great
in bloodstains
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Other reviews
By microman
The old Massive can only be recognized in some drum machine programming.
Antistar closes the album, made of emptiness, minimal, sparse, delicate loops that repeat in the infinite of its 20-minute duration.
By theJOKE
Massive Attack as the true essence of urban and metropolitan reality of the new millennium.
"Small Time Shot Away" and "Butterfly Caught" slowly reopen the wounds of war, intertwining love and death with enigmatic coldness.
By The_dull_flame
The first seconds of 'Future Proof' are enough to be fascinated by it.
'Butterfly Caught' is a devastating electronic dark masterpiece that sends shivers down your spine.
