Massive Attack & Tom Waits / Boots On The Ground / Play It Again Sam

Boots On The Ground is a collaboration between Massive Attack and Tom Waits. Announced on April 16th, this is Massive Attack’s first release since the 2024’s Medicines San Frontieres fund-raising single Ceasefire, and Waits’ first new recording since 2011’s Bad For Me. The 76-year old Waits raising himself out of what appeared to be retirement. Illustrating, without a doubt, how strongly he feels about the song’s subject matter. A clanking music concrete collage, the track echoes the anger of Waits’ Hell Broke Luce. Its lyrics delivered in the voice of a cranky carney barker, and aimed directly at current events in America. Sung from a “soldier’s” point of view, describing its protagonist as a public servant, and blurring the border between peace keeping and invading forces. Protector and murderer. The streets of Minneapolis are intentionally evoked, but the piece’s warnings are far broader. While the distracting, distorting mirror of social media would like to keep us all focused on…