Massive Attack

Presaging next year’s highly-anticipated Luc Besson/Jet Li martial-arts collaboration Danny the Dog (which will go by the decidedly lamer title Unleashed for the apparently lamer North America audiences) comes the film’s soundtrack by Massive Attack. This all-instrumental album is a bit of a departure for the duo of 3D and Daddy G (currently in the studio working on a new artist album due out next spring) rooted as it is in classical orchestration. Massive’s signature stark menace is still largely in effect and there are some familiar beat-based pieces with sinister bass lines and dirty synths, all of which tower over the more traditional tracks. Their production is evocative and works well as background, but while Danny does take the Bristol twosome’s "cinematic” style to its logical conclusion, these 21 atmospheric cuts don’t offer enough of a personality (outside of their visual context, presumably) to make this more than a score.