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Title: Background Music
Review: Massive Attack's 100th Window is trip-hop without the hip-hop. Better known for their spooky atmospherics than for their beats, they give up all pretense to dance culture and go for the ambient chill crowd. Problem is, without the underlay of terror that's driven their best tracks ("Angel", "Protection"), there's not much there there. Not that these songs aren't scary - the lyrics are full of forbidding images - but that the music is, at its most propulsive, tinkling and comforting. Sinead O'Connor pops up on a few tracks; she's the trance dance diva du jour and, much as I love her voice, she's a stone bore. Horace Andy's lovely lilt does what it can to prop up a few okay songs. Otherwise, it's background music. Hopefully, for a place you never set foot in.
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