Unfinished Sympathy – Massive Attack (1991)

Description

Additional information about this Massive Attack vinyl art.

Massive Attack – The Band

Massive Attack are an English trip hop collective formed in 1988 in Bristol by Robert “3D” Del Naja, Adrian “Tricky” Thaws, Andrew “Mushroom” Vowles and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall.
The debut Massive Attack album Blue Lines was released in 1991, with the single “Unfinished Sympathy” reaching the charts and later being voted the 63rd greatest song of all time in a poll by NME. 1998’s Mezzanine (containing the top 10 single “Teardrop”) and 2003’s 100th Window charted in the UK at number one. Both Blue Lines and Mezzanine feature in Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The group has won numerous music awards throughout their career, including a Brit Award—winning Best British Dance Act, two MTV Europe Music Awards, and two Q Awards. They have released five studio albums that have sold over 13 million copies worldwide. Throughout their history, Massive Attack have been supporters and activists for political, human rights and environmental causes.

Unfinished Sympathy – The Song

“Unfinished Sympathy”  is a 1991 song by the English trip hop group Massive Attack, released under the temporary group name Massive. It was written by the three band members Robert “3D” Del Naja, Andrew “Mushroom” Vowles and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall, the song’s vocalist Shara Nelson and the group’s co-producer Jonathan “Jonny Dollar” Sharp. It was released in February 1991 as the second single from the band’s first album, Blue Lines, on the band’s Wild Bunch label distributed by Circa Records. The name “Massive” was used to avoid a radio ban, as the track’s release coincided with the Gulf War. Produced by Massive Attack and Dollar, the song incorporates various musical elements into its arrangement, including vocal and percussion samples, drum programming and string orchestration by the arranger Wil Malone. “Unfinished Sympathy” topped the Dutch Top 40 and was a top-20 hit on the singles charts of several countries, including Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The accompanying music video, directed by Baillie Walsh, was a single continuous shot of Nelson walking through a Los Angeles neighbourhood, oblivious to her surroundings. Considered by many as a pioneering song in the development of British dance music, “Unfinished Sympathy” was acclaimed by music critics for its production and Nelson’s vocals. It ranked highly on several publications’ year-end lists of the best singles of 1991, and has since appeared in many polls of the best songs of all time by both music critics and the public worldwide. The song was later used on the soundtrack of the 1993 film Sliver.

Massive Attack Logo – The Shape

Modelled into the Massive Attack burning logo as used by the band on their record sleeves and promotional material at the time..

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