The protest song marks the long-awaited return of both artists.
Massive Attack and Tom Waits have joined forces to release Boots On The Ground, alongside a video examining political unrest and systemic injustice in the United States.
For Waits, it is his first new material since his 2011 album Bad As Me, with additional vocals contributed by his son Casey. For Massive Attack, the release ends a six-year stretch without new music, and more than a decade since they released The Spoils.
The accompanying film, which runs for seven minutes, was created in collaboration with the documentary photographer known as thefinaleye.
“The film that follows encapsulates his work across an epoch forming six-year period,” reads the intro. “From the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 5 2020, to recent ICE raids on migrant communities & the killing of civilians that protect them. From the brutal state repression of public protest, to the reality of American homelessness that includes nearly 33,000 military veterans.”
The video closes by memorialising those who have died in connection with immigration enforcement and highlighting the broader consequences of state retaliation against protest movements.
In a statement accompanying the release, Massive Attack frame the song as a response to a broader political climate. “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 and abandoned mind,” they said.
“One day many years ago I accepted an invitation from Massive Attack to collaborate,” Waits explains. “Way back then, we sent them Boots on the Ground. Their long release delay never worried me. Today, as in all of mankind’s yesterdays, guarantees this song will never go out of style.”
The track arrives days after Massive Attack frontman Robert Del Naja was among hundreds arrested at a recent Palestine Action protest.
Watch the video below.