100th Window Sounds Like the First 99
By Chris Meyer
A&F Associate

The first quarter of the year is always light on music releases, and of what there is, the actual good albums are few and far between; after the commercial glut of the Christmas season, the industry always finds itself in something of a lull, and album sales tend to mimic the volume of new releases. It's somewhat surprising, then, that this is the timeframe (February 11, to be precise) in which Massive Attack has chosen to release 100th Window, their fourth official album and our first glimpse of them in almost five years.

Lest the public has already forgotten the Brits responsible for that funky subculture known as "trip-hop," it bears mentioning that Massive Attack was among the foremost beat pioneers in the U.K. back in the mid-'90s, paving the way for future acts such as Tricky, Portishead, UNKLE, Red Snapper and the like. At the height of their popularity, Massive Attack were only slightly less influential than, say, Nirvana, so it's fair to say their latest album has been eagerly anticipated.

But since the release of 1998's Mezzanine, many things have changed within the collective (and I use the term "collective" because to simply call them a "band" would be to ignore their complicated formula). Founding members Mushroom and Daddy G have left the group-permanently and temporarily, respectively-leaving 3D as the only original, while the cast of collaborators has shrunk considerably to the duo of Sinead O'Connor and longtime Massive accomplice Horace Andy. 100th Window is therefore pretty much the product of four minds-the aforementioned three and producer Neil Davidge, who also worked on Mezzanine-so its uniform sound doesn't come as much of a surprise.

100th Window sounds more like a continuation of Mezzanine than anything else, which in itself isn't a terrible thing, given that most people found Protection strikingly similar to their debut, Blue Lines. But where Protection used the latter as a base to explore new territory and diversify, 100th Window seems to do the opposite in focusing on a few of Mezzanine's strengths and building an entire album out of them. If there are any new horizons explored here, they're subtle enough to avoid detection on the first or even fifth listen.

This is not to say that the album is terrible. Mezzanine was perhaps Massive Attack's best and sent the group in a brand new direction, perhaps one that is important to refine. Horace Andy sounds as good as ever on "Everywhen" and "Name Taken," although perhaps not quite as powerful as his work on "Angel," but thankfully better than "Man Next Door," Sinead O'Connor makes her Massive Attack debut here and imbues the album with a breath of fresh air, thanks to her distinctive Irish warble; her lyrics in "A Prayer for England" foster a kind of pointedness and relevancy that previous singers have avoided. On the other side of the coin, though, her voice lacks the melody many of these singers brought to the table. For many Massive Attack songs, including Mezzanine highlight "Group Four," the voice was as much an instrument as the bass line, and what was sung was not nearly as important as how it was sung. Whether Sinead's advantages outweigh her disadvantages is probably a matter of personal opinion, though when the beats shy away to give Sinead center stage for the chorus to "What Your Soul Sings," you have to wonder where the new Massive Attack's priorities lie.

The production for the most part is spot-on. 100th Window is swimming (or drowning) in the same kind of bass-heavy cinematic production that made Mezzanine a success, and though I haven't tested it, this album is probably as serviceable to controlled substance-related listening experiences as the last one. Beat-wise, 3D shows himself capable of at least holding down the fort without his founding brothers, though that's about his limit. His singing is as hazy as it should be, and his lyrics are passable; but ultimately the tracks featuring his vocals are probably the weakest on 100th Window, simply because what he's done here has been done better on previous albums. "Everywhen" is decent enough but pales in comparison to such previous masterworks as "Risingson" and "Eurochild"; the overlong "Small Time Shot Away" supposedly features backing vocals from Damon Albarn, but these are so fleeting and garbled that they could have been sung by anyone and don't add much to the song anyway. "Antistar" is at least in a similar textual vein to "Inertia Creeps" and ends the album on a high note, not including the ten-odd minutes of ambience at the end.

A final caveat: 100th Window is one of the first widely-available albums to feature an advanced form of copy protection, meaning you won't be able to play it on your computer using most kinds of conventional CD player programs. The group has yet to comment on this issue, and it may be a decision made by their label, Virgin. Regardless, be prepared to do some creative wiring if you want to play this album through your PC's speakers.

In spite of its flaws, 100th Window is still one of the more noteworthy releases of 2003. Granted, this isn't saying a lot, but fans of Massive Attack and especially Mezzanine will want to check this out anyway. It doesn't offer up a lot of groundbreaking material, though let's hope that when Daddy G returns to the fold, Massive Attack will become as exciting and unpredictable as it used to be.