There are two kinds of Massive Attack listeners: the diehard fans that possess all Massive Attack records, and the others who have never heard of this band. A mere compilation album consisting of singles hardly does any justice to Massive Attack\u2019s body of work, which although isn\u2019t vast, has definitely been a groundbreaking force in electronic music. The single-disc version of Collected<\/i>, which encompasses singles from Massive Attack\u2019s first four regular studio albums, is probably not the best record to start for a new listener \u2013 and it\u2019s of little value to a fan. <\/p>\n
However, things get far more interesting with the dual-disc version. The DVD-layer of disc two, which is a collection of videos of all the singles, alone, is worth every penny paid for this set. Being a visually conscious act, Massive Attack never takes their videos casually, and there is no set of music videos more exciting and diverse than this one.<\/p>\n
As a blessing, the CD-layer of disc two consists of unreleased tracks and other oddities. The band doesn\u2019t treat this additional material like a dump for rejects. This disc is pretty much like a serious Massive Attack album that the band never released. The choice of songs is thoughtful, keeping in mind band zealots. There are two songs, one from each of the two movies that Massive Attack scored (that could\u2019ve technically been included on disc one but prudently weren\u2019t) \u2013 the title tracks from Danny The Dog<\/i> and Bullet Boy<\/i> \u2013 which are rather ambient in nature and something that only a fan would appreciate.<\/p>\n
Scattered throughout the record are remixes, which are more like alternate takes: \u201cIncantations\u201d (a laidback and dreamier version of \u201cEverywhen\u201d from 100th Window<\/i>), \u201cBlack Melt\u201d (a shorter, grittier version of \u201cBlack Milk\u201d from Mezzanine<\/i>), and \u201cSmall Time Shoot \u2018Em Up\u201d (a version of \u201cSmall Time Shot away\u201d from 100th Window<\/i> with altered, more tense beats), all of which are superb originals in their own right.<\/p>\n
Just like the usual Massive Attack album, this one too features guest singers \u2013 \u201cIncantations\u201d featuring Horace Andy, \u201cSilent Spring\u201d and \u201cBlack Melt\u201d featuring Elizabeth Fraser, \u201cI Against I\u201d featuring Mos Def \u2013 in addition to the ones sung by the band members, mainly Robert Del Naja (\u201cFalse Flags\u201d and \u201cSmall Time Shoot \u2018Em Up\u201d). The biggest surprise of the second disc (that could have been a strong selling-point for the single-disc version of Collected <\/i>had it been included there instead of here) is the track \u201cI Want You,\u201d featuring Madonna, which also appears on her 1995 ballads compilation album Something To Remember. Being a compilation album with more than just a \u201cnew song\u201d to offer, Collected<\/i> might just be the only \u201cgreatest hits\u201d record geared more to the diehard fans than to the accidental listener.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":30320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6008],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41975","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-massive-attack","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41975"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41975"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}