Title - 100th Window
Artist - Massive Attack
Label - Virgin
Rating - 2/10 (for the artwork)

It was a fairly tall order to follow 'Blue Lines' in the first place. Nevertheless, both 'Protection' and 'Mezzanine' were great albums in their own right, made even more impressive by the fact that they took completely different directions from their behemoth of a predecessor - Massive Attack certainly can't be accused of monotony. There is yet another musical change underlying '100th Window', but rather than pushing the envelope once more, Massive Attack have this time opted to create an album for Islington dinner parties.

There is no doubting the band's talents (although it is worth noting only Robert Del Naja remains from the core threesome that made up the original band), and it is hard to detract from what has gone before this album. But '100th Window' is soulless, tedious and lacks any real character. All the subtlety has gone, replaced instead by blandness. Sinead O'Connor's irritating warbling does not help matters, and even Horace Andy's voice sounds flat here. The music itself fails to communicate any kind of emotion - the early stages of a couple of tracks (namely 'A Prayer for England' and 'Antistar') hint at some kind of feeling, but then quickly descend into boring pap.

Given that it has taken almost 5 years to deliver this waffle it is a safe bet that, unless Daddy G and Mushroom rejoin the ranks, '100th Window' will not be followed by a fifth studio album. Massive Attack have made a tremendous contribution to the music world, but to keep this reputation intact it's best to forget that this album was ever recorded.

Links:
www.massiveattack.com
www.100thwindow.com

Reviewed by Ronnie