Time flies: Massive Attack return and bring Tom Waits with them

If there's one thing we have learned from Massive Attack's new single is that Tom Waits loves flies.

Boots On The Ground is Massive Attack's first new single in ages. It's a dimly-lit, seething electronic stomp that pours ire on the militaristic and fascistic state of US geopolitics.

The track features the vocals of Tom Waits. Obviously, he’s best known as the serial killer bunny owner in the 2012 film Seven Psychopaths. Apparently, he’s done some music too. His voice is brilliantly gruff: a tipper truck of gravel poured into Massive’s moody quagmire.

This is proper political. When “federal pricks” is one of the more polite lyrics, you know things have got bad.

Says Robert Del Naja: “Across the Western hemisphere, state authoritarianism and the militarisation of police forces are fusing again with neofascist politics… this track contains pulses of callous impulse and abandoned mind.”

Very poetic but also absolutely furious. It’s good to have the Attack chaps back.

Del Naja was arrested in Trafalgar Square last week after showing support for Palestine Action. The government has now arrested thousands of people on similar grounds, including people with disabilities and pensioners. The wrong placard, the wrong t-shirt, but it’s alright to pour cash into genocidal bombing campaigns. This isn’t a political blog, but jeez, I can see why Massive Attack are so narked.

The forthcoming 12-inch of Boots On The Ground will feature a spoken word track called The Fly. It is… well, I’ll let Tom Waits explain.

“Man’s folly of fiascos is a feast for the flies. Hence, the b-side of Massive Attack’s upcoming 12-inch The Fly features my appreciation for the winged nuisance.”

Very poetic but also absolutely off-the-chain. I never knew how much Tom Waits loves flies. Rabbits, maybe, what with all those rabbits he owned when he was a psychopath. But flies?

As I kid, I used to befriend spiders on the way to school. I gave them names and counted their legs to make sure everything was in order. No, really. I wonder if Waits does the same with houseflies.

Maybe I'm wrong and it's a cover of U2’s leather-and-shades reinvention The Fly. That would be a disappointment. Or the best thing ever. I can't decide.

Watch the video for Boots On The Ground.

Further Fats: Massive Attack got soul but Ceephax got swing(ing lampshades) (2010)

Further Fats: Does Donald Trump listen to music? (2017)