Shiny & New Turns 2: #9 "Unfinished Sympathy" - Massive Attack

"Like a soul without a mind / In a body without a heart / I'm missing every part"

I’ve briefly mentioned previously the separation of my listening tastes into ‘eras’. There was the typical pre-pubescent phase where bubblegum/Top 40 pop music were pretty much my limits, then there was my not-really-caring-about-music phase; then there was my “Wow, brilliant music exists!” phase and finally there was the “Get rid of the shit you’re listening to because you want to fit in and just listen to what you love” era which began a few years ago and in which I’m still blissfully wallowing like a hippo in mud in. “Unfinished Sympathy” by Massive Attack is one song which I will forever remember with potent clarity as an official Turning Point™. I was fourteen years old, waiting for my mother to finish getting ready, and the very video above this writing began to show on MTV2. Little did I know what I was about to hear and see would directly change how I thought about music entirely. I must have listened to this song over a hundred times, yet – something I don’t believe I can say for any other song – the journey I am taken on with every new listen is no different from the very first time I was taken on it.

The intimidating bass grabs my throat and holds it in a suffocating grip for the following four minutes. In its grasp I’m subjected to the most sorrowful lyrics given life by the stunning Shara Nelson, pushed by achingly handsome strings arranged by Craig Armstrong, a consuming, fast-moving beat and a heart-wrenching faded refrain. Of all the songs I will write about in this list, “Unfinished Sympathy” is possibly the only one to bring me to the brink of moving my heart and mood, to take my light to dark and back to light again, to steal me to a Los Angeles summer’s evening in 1991. As the strings grow shriller, tenser, stronger, the song reaches its climax and the listener is dropped by Massive Attack’s fist and left with an empty, wrenching feeling. As if you’ve been left to fend for yourself. Such is the whirlwind of incomparable and incredible emotions the listening experience of “Unfinished Sympathy” continues to be many, many listens later.

In February 2007, I attended my very first ‘gig’. It was Massive Attack, and the very last song was “Unfinished Sympathy”.