Massive Attack’s First Song in Six Years Features Tom Waits

After 6 years away, Massive Attack have finally gifted us with new music. The single “Boots on the Ground” also includes a rare feature from Tom Waits, who sings about the recent socio-political turmoil in America. “Born shiny bullets in an army of pants, blow that horn, we sleep in our pants,” he says, before following it up, for some reason, with a mention of “big titties, big titties.” The song arrives with a short film spotlighting the photography of thefinaleye, who captured scenes from pandemic-era Black Lives Matter protests and recent countrywide ICE raids. Watch the visual below.

Massive Attack’s Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant “Daddy G” Marshal said in a press release, “It’s a career honour to collaborate with an artist of the magnitude, originality and integrity of Tom, but this track is arriving in an atmosphere of chaos. Across the western hemisphere, state authoritarianism and the militarisation of police forces are fusing again with neo-fascist politics. Seen within the American emergency, at home and overseas, this track contains pulses of callous impulse & abandoned mind.”

Waits’ last album was 2011’s Bad as Me. Since then, he has primarily focused on acting, recently starring in 2025’s Father Mother Sister Brother, and 2023’s Star.Wav and The Absence of Eden.

In 2020, Massive Attack released Eutopia, an EP that addressed global issues such as the climate and cost-of-living crises. In 2025, the duo requested to have their music pulled from Spotify, saying “the economic burden that has long been placed on artists is now compounded by a moral & ethical burden, whereby the hard-earned money of fans & the creative endeavours of musicians ultimately fund lethal, dystopian technologies.” This week, Del Naja was arrested at a demonstration in support of the activist group Palestine Action. In May, Massive Attack will launch a short tour that will take them across Europe before ending in Niigata, Japan. Scroll down for the full itinerary.

Revisit Pitchfork’s Sunday review of Maxinquaye.