100th Window - Massive Attack

Advantages: Flawless Chillout Trip Hop
Disadvantages: None for people who like Trip Hop

...Mezzanine, was released in 1998, 100th Window gained its release on the 10th February 2003. Five years later. Despite having read criticism that 100th Window isn’t Mezzanine (often considered their best work and a highly recommended listen) 100th window does continue in the MA tradition but also strives to move away from the sounds that were so popular on the album before. Without straying from the urban sound and rhetoric on modern England, war, ...
...to define it, certainly in 100th Window this would probably prove quite pointless as the tracks do, by and large, have a particularly strong theme, Trip Hop. If you’ve been listening your imagination should by now have painted a picture of the kind of music I’m talking about but I’ll provide a short synopsis of the story. The title 100th Window is a metaphor pulled from the title of a book, the idea of which explores the theory that no matter how ... Read review

Advantages: Sound design. Interesting soundscapes. Sinead O'Connor.
Disadvantages: Melodic content non existent. Slightly dodgy production in areas.

Where are the tunes guys? What happened to the catchy riffs that made your songs instantly recognisable? There are more questions than answers on this album - the most pressing being - 'What has happened to Massive Attack' Massive Attack's albums are great listening experiences (before this one) - in particular Mezzanine. And their singles (before the singles from this album) were very memorable - most noticeably Teardrop - from Mezzanine. On ...
...sounds so 'samey'. Massive Attack are great at creating soundscapes - and that is something they have achieved very well on this album as well. The problem with this album - is that there is not a lot on top of those soundscapes - it's all very well doing sound design - but you have to have something that interest the ears - otherwise this music might as well be lounge music. The first single from this album that was released ' Special Cases' is ... Read review

Advantages: Moving, involving music
Disadvantages: Very sombre in comparison to Protection or Blue Lines

...menacing riffs and skittering percussion. 100th Window's dark interior has been wrapped up in it's quiet beauty, unlike Mezzanine, where more obvious dark menace was juxtaposed with ethereal beauty. Perhaps the album art is symbolic of the music - the fragile, emotional, human glass shattered by a bullet and all captured in slow motion, freeze-frame. Inevitably with music as eerily 'chill out' as this - music full of spaces that are only momentarily ...
...Sympathy', 'Karmacoma', 'Angel' or 'Teardrop', perhaps part of the reason for its lack of critical success. Rather it is memorable for the way it plays on your emotions, and for sounding so incredibly organic yet shattered and frozen. 'Future Proof' begins with a rotating synth riff that never seems to settle into a groove, keeping the song on edge throughout. Guitar licks echo around it until the low vocals come in along with a fractured beat, ... Read review

Advantages: Better than mezzanine
Disadvantages: You may be missing the old.

Massive Attacks “100th Window" has a lot of the good songs that makes a this release from Massive Attack achieved vast improvements . "Future Proof" gives some sounds of robotic sound effects which merge into a red-light district guitar frenzy. "When Your Soul Sings" features another guest appearance from Everything but the Girl's front woman singer Tracey Thorn. The “100 window” was compared to their previous album called Mezzanine and has even ...
...sound beat, Mezzanine has more of a seductive vibe, while this one has more of a caught in the pouring rain feel. Sinead O'Conner sounds good on the Children of England track. This album is much more sophisticated and better than Massive Attack's previous albums. 'Special Cases' and 'A Prayer for England' are my favorite tracks in the album and the rest plays through very nicely with the exception of the final 10 minutes of bleeping after 'Antistar'. ... Read review

Advantages: Musically excellent AND politicised!!!
Disadvantages: none spring to mind.

...core that unerpins ADFs best work. The first single "Fortress Europe" has a similar rushed feel to it but is infinitely more enjoyable because of the vaguely Arabic vocal refrain weaving in and out of the background. Time and mainstream acceptance haven't dimmed the band's political zeal, at its most overt here on "19 Rebellions" which deals with the inhumane treatment of inmates in Brazilian prisons and which is reminiscent of The Pop Group in many ways. The stand out track and one that screams out to be released as a single is "1000 Mirrors" which manages to be both warming and haunting at the same time thanks to a caught-you-in-an-instant hookline and a characteristically peerless vocal performance from Sinead O'Connor (who incidentally is also on fine form while guesting on Massive Attack's "100th Window" album). We... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful