Angel

'Angel' opens Massive Attack's third album with a deceptive simplicity. Horace Andy's vocals drift over a sample from The Incredible Bongo Band, singing of heavenly visitation and unconditional affection. The lyrics begin as a straightforward love song, but the track pivots sharply. What starts as a vision of beauty transforms into something darker and more unsettling, the angel recast as a destructive force. The song draws from Andy's own 1973 single 'You Are My Angel', though Massive Attack reshape it into something altogether more complex. The repetition of "love you" becomes hypnotic and then claustrophobic, the production layering dub textures and trip hop rhythms beneath Andy's increasingly ambiguous delivery. It was released as a single in 1998, establishing the album's willingness to unsettle even as it seduces.