New EP from Massive Attack, in lieu of their fifth album which has been pushed back in to a
fifth year. Apparently they saw the whole decade-long Portishead drama and thought that was a smashing idea. I don't really like it. The instrumentals are kind of primitive, and the vocals range from languid listening to barely tolerable (Horace Andy, amongst my top ten male vocalists, sounds like he's pinching his nose all over the title track). On the other hand, there are flashes of brilliance in "Pray For Rain" that make me think
LP5 could be as much of a departure from
Mezzanine as that album was from their first two. At this stage, I can't think of any other excuse for the album taking so damn long. Here's hoping.
DownloadAlso, sorry this triple-posted. Have fun with your RSS notifications now fuckers.
Boy this band has come a long way from Moon Safari. In the way that a body might be thrown a long way after a particularly gruesome vehicular crash. It's not that bad, I guess. Every song is well made, and there are some standout moments. But all in all the album just sounds so generic, so tired and overwrought. Air were amongst the best producers of, well, really stoned sounding electronic music. They spawned leagues of copycats whose work you can usually find in the 'Relaxation' section of Borders or on the counter at Starbucks. This album sounds like a copycat of those Air copycats. Maybe you will like it though; plenty of people are just raving about it. Download it.
