Living in the Flood

Recorded at Kingston\'s Tuff Gong Studios and released on Massive Attack’s own Melankolic label, *Living in the Flood* expands on the dark \'70s reggae that brought Andy to Massive Attack’s attention in the first place. He enlisted venerable producer Clive Hunt to organize the musicians, and amazingly, *Living in the Flood* achieves a heavy, organic feel without resorting to mimicking the singer’s vintage recordings. The songs show occasional flourishes of drum programming, but it’s subtly done and provides a militancy to “Johnny Too Bad” and “Living in the Flood,” like a clapboard house reinforced with titanium steel. Andy’s quavering voice fits effortlessly into these songs. At a certain point in their career, older performers often become separated from their backing bands, and “comeback” albums sometimes superimpose a voice on a musical track as if it were a backdrop. Such isn\'t the case here. Andy does simply lead in “Seven Seals” and “Smiling Face,” but he curls through the songs\' cracks like smoke around the corners of a staircase.

Alright, no fooling around. Anyone whose primary references to the word "skank"\n\ have something to do with really trashy ...

Horace Andy is one of the true living legends of reggae, a great falsetto singer whose earliest work established a roots reggae foundation upon which numerous other singers would later build, and who has managed to continue to make vital and influential music throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century, largely thanks to his collaborations with the British trip-hop band Massive Attack.