Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack

Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack

Massive attack is an English Trip Hop group which formed in 1988, in Bristol. The group is made up of 3 members, who are Robert Del Naja (3D), Grant Marshall (Daddy G) and Andy Vowles (Mushroom). they have released five studio albums, that have sold over 11 million copies worldwide. This particular song is from their first album ‘Blue Lines’, which was released in 1991. They first met when they were a part of 'The Wild Bunch', where Daddy G and mushroom were DJs, and 3D was an artist / rapper. Once they had changed their name to ‘Massive Attack’, the group decided to temporarily shorten their name to 'Massive' whilst the first Gulf war was going on due to the use the work 'Attack' being deemed unacceptable and would have been seen as disrespectful.

Shara Nelson, who sang Massive Attack's 'Safe From Harm', also sang 'Unfinished Sympathy'. This song is original and different for the Trip Hop genre, featuring various orchestral elements, a string section, and numerous layers of vocals. The song title 'Unfinished Sympathy' could be a play on the term 'unfinished symphony' which would explain the string and orchestral elements included throughout the song. The use of the word 'unfinished' could provoke a sense of feeling incomplete. The lines 'how can you have a day without a night' and 'you're the book that I have opened' makes you think that the relationship could have been very one-sided and that although the relationship consisted of two people, she was the one who was more devoted to it. I think that the lyrics also hint at rejection through the line 'the curiousness of your potential kiss', which seems to highlight how she has feeling for another person but they don't feel the same way back. Although the true emotion of the song isn’t strongly portrayed throughout the video, the final line of the song, 'I'm missing every part', the lyrics seem to be helping the whole song come together and make it known that heartbreak is the overall message within the song.

The music video is filmed in one continuous tracking shot, showing the singer of the song, Shara Nelson, walking down the street, with the use of the tracking shot making it feel like you are walking down the street with her. As Nelson is shown walking, her pace matches with the beat of the song itself, which helps to tie everything together nicely. By using a continuous shot rather than having multiple shots, the audience is able to have a wide view of the many different types of people that are shown on the street. The video is set on the street, using natural light, making the street life represented in the video more realistic. There is little to no editing used in this video, which again helps to maintain the realistic view of street life. Nelson is wearing all black in the video with minimal makeup on, which not only helps you to focus on the background rather than the foreground, but the black dress could also emphasise the lyrics which focus on her heart break. She also walks down the street like she is oblivious to everything going on around her, which could be an emphasis on her heart break and that that's all she can think about. Alternatively, it could also mean that she is so used to seeing these things on a daily basis that she is no longer fazed by anything she sees. At the beginning of the video, we are shown gang standing around which then cuts to a child shooting a toy gun towards the camera. This could symbolise that the child still has his innocence with having the toy, but it is shown that he is being corrupted by the use of his clothing, the fact that his toy is a gun, and that it cuts to him after a gang was shown. 

During the video, it is mainly non-diegetic sound that is heard through the song playing. However, at the beginning before the song starts, there is diegetic sound showed in the form of a dog barking and the Chinese stress balls, and then cars at the end when Nelson walks around the corner. This could have been done so that even though the song would be the main focus of the video, they have kept street life included by editing in these diegetic sounds to again make the video seem more realistic.