Music Matters

The thing that strikes me most original about the band Massive Attack is their ability to create hooks that aren’t your typical repetitive grinding chorus verses.  The songs are infectious, addictive, and each album gets better with each release.  That alone is something of a milestone in music these days.  To have a band that keeps getting better and outdoes themselves time after time again, making each song and album and discography collective, thoughtful, and creative.  It’s no wonder that I’m starting out my blog with a band as big as Massive Attack, as awesome a band as they are, and a band I have been lucky enough to see live even though ironically I missed them live when I first found out about them through the 9:30 club listing for having come through the Washington DC area all those years ago.  I don’t regret a single Massive Attack moment I’ve ever listened to, album I’ve ever bought, or video I’ve ever watched (and if you want to watch a really fucked up video of a girl getting completely wasted, Live With Me is definitely your #1 choice for that!).

In order to appropriately talk about Massive Attack, I must point out I’ve been involved in the electronic music scene for a while now and have to give kudos to Bjork for paving that way.  I get offended often when someone talks ill of such a goddess, she really opened my eyes to the genre and I am eternally grateful for having her shine the way to other great artists such as Kosheen, Hooverphonic, Faithless, DJ Shadow, Orbital, and many many more that I might not have been even the most slightly interested in.  I’m sure I’ll get to many more of those artists (especially Faithless!) in later blog posts, but for now I’ll suffice to say thank you, Bjork.  You and me go way back without even you knowing it.  But that’s cool.  Though where you’ve faltered and grown stale Bjork, Massive Attack has picked up and stayed strong and I totally love them for that.  Massive Attack will always fill that void if I ever had any to fill, though now I’ll never know because they’re a milestone in my own personal musical discography.

Masters of the trip hop genre, Massive Attack’s first album was actually not the first that I bought surprisingly.  That title goes to the album Mezzanine, released in 1998.  First song I ever heard from Massive Attack?  None other than Teardrop, of course.  It can only get better from there!

I backtracked at Newbury Comics of all places one day, picking up Blue Lines released in 1991, and Protection in 1994.  Safe From Harm, Daydreaming, and Unfinished Sympathy are my immediate favorites off Blue Lines.  And how could I forget Karmacoma off Protection?  It’s probably just Tricky’s influence, but that song in particular is the ideal Massive Attack relaxation & chill song.  Better Things has shown up on a couple of my mixes as well, that song always knows how to hit the spot.

And then there’s Mezzanine, the first Massive Attack album I ever really got into.  Angel, Inertia Creeps, Teardrop – those are my top three.  The whole album is amazing.  It’s no wonder the popular TV show House uses Massive Attack in their introduction as the credits roll before each show.  I would, too.

But, wait!  It gets better from there.  Not only do Massive Attack have three amazing albums at this point, they release two more on my watch this time, able to rush out and buy the new albums as they get released and consider myself an avid fan of the band.  100^th Window, released in 2003, is probably my all time favorite Massive Attack album.  It’d be a toss up which album I’d recommend an interested music lover trying to get in touch with his inner self through music – Mezzanine or 100^th Window?  I’d say listen to them all, see what you make of them, and it’ll get through to you, I promise.  The album cover for 100^th Window is top notch and the top songs include Future Proof and Butterfly Caught, though as with their other albums, every song is great!

And with each Massive Attack release, they take forever to come out, so I had to wait a long time to get my hands on Heligoland, released just last year in 2010.  But what a release it was!  I’m also a pretty big Elbow fan, so it was a pleasant surprise to find Guy Garvey on the album as a guest star.  It’s funny when other artists try and incorporate guest stars on their albums, they don’t ever sound half as good as when Massive Attack does it.  Like I said before, one of the reasons I like Massive Attack so much is that their albums get better with each release.  Heligoland did not disappoint in the slightest and each song is absolutely fantastic, mixed well, and produced professionally.  Pray For Rain is haunting, Splitting the Atom an instant classic, and Atlas Air is a staple Massive Attack song for anyone remotely interested in them.  I cannot praise this band enough, and my only complaint is that their b side United Snakes is not on the album, which is definitely worth a search on youtube!

I have seen them live before, at the 9:30 club on 9/29/2006.  I was considering getting tickets for both nights of the two gigs they played there, but I was good with just one, right up in the first few rows.  Amazing show, their lights were spectacular!  And I managed to get a tour shirt at the gig too.  Finally, I got to see a band whose live show announcement was what started it all for me in the first place.

Massive Attack…. Thank you!

- Dan Golden, June 2011 (please email any comments to [email protected])