Massive Attack - Boots on the Ground collaboration with Tom Waits and 2026 tour plans

Massive Attack mark a major return in 2026 with their new single Boots on the Ground featuring Tom Waits and a run of European dates that includes a rare open-air show at Berlin’s Zitadelle Spandau. According to the single announcement and listings on Apple Music, the track was released on April 16, 2026 via Play It Again Sam.

The new collaboration Boots on the Ground

Boots on the Ground is Massive Attack’s first officially released song in six years and pairs the Bristol trip-hop collective with US songwriter and vocalist Tom Waits. A detailed write-up on XS Noize confirms that the collaboration arrives with a vinyl-exclusive B-side titled The Fly, a sardonic spoken-word piece by Waits that extends the single into a two-part release on physical formats.XS Noize report on Boots on the Ground

Apple Music lists Boots on the Ground as a one-track digital single released on April 16, 2026, confirming both the date and the track’s status as Massive Attack’s latest official release. The platform also highlights the song among the group’s top tracks in 2026, underlining its role as the current focal point of their catalog on mainstream services.Apple Music artist overview

Album and work context in 2026

The release of Boots on the Ground fits into a broader plan by Massive Attack to bring new material to the public in 2026. In November 2025, several outlets reported on a statement from the band in which they announced that, starting in 2026, they would release a cache of work created in the recent past, with tracks available physically and digitally via a new label, and with an explicit exception for Spotify.State of Sound summary of 2026 plans

This strategy follows an extended studio gap. Massive Attack’s last full-length studio album, Heligoland, was released in 2010, while more recent projects include the 2016 EP Ritual Spirit, the single The Spoils from the same year, and the 2020 EP Eutopia. With Boots on the Ground now out and further releases promised, 2026 is being positioned as the year that closes a sixteen-year album hiatus and reactivates the band’s studio output on a larger scale.

How the work sounds

Massive Attack’s sound on Boots on the Ground continues the dark, cinematic trip-hop aesthetic they established on albums like Mezzanine, combining brooding bass lines and spacious beats with atmospheric textures and vocal performances that are closer to storytelling than conventional pop hooks. Tom Waits’ distinctive voice and spoken-word style amplify the track’s narrative tension and give it a stark, theatrical edge that aligns with Massive Attack’s history of working with singular vocalists such as Elizabeth Fraser, Horace Andy and Tracey Thorn.

The collaboration also reflects Massive Attack’s long-standing interest in politically engaged music. Previous releases such as the EP Eutopia and the single United Snakes have paired production experiments with commentary on climate, inequality and technology. In that sense, Boots on the Ground fits into a lineage in which the group uses their studio work to frame wider social themes without sacrificing musical depth.

Where the act stands

Massive Attack’s next officially confirmed live date after August 19, 2026 is August 6, 2026 at Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Brisbane, Australia, as listed on promoter Frontier Touring’s tour page.

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