After 15 Years Away, One of Music’s Greatest Songwriters Has Finally Released a New Single
'70s folk rock icon and Father Mother Sister Brother star Tom Waits just released his first single in 15 years — and that's not even the biggest surprise. The song, "Boots on the Ground," is a collaboration with another artist who hasn't put out new music in a while: Massive Attack.
Waits is known for his bluesy, folksy songs like "I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You." Massive Attack, meanwhile, is known for their experimental early '90s trip-hop songs like "Unfinished Sympathy." The new single combines Waits' gruff, bluesy voice over Massive Attack's funky electronic beats.
Waits appeared on a cover of "Bella Ciao (Goodbye Beautiful)" with Marc Ribot in 2018, and he appeared on a cover of a Blind Willie Johnson song with Lucinda Williams for a tribute album in 2016, but this is his first original release since his album Bad As Me in 2011.
According to Waits, this project has been a long time in the making. "One day many years ago, I accepted an invitation from Massive Attack to collaborate," he said in a statement, via Stereogum. "Their long release delay never worried me. Today, as in all of mankind's yesterdays, guarantees this type of song will never go out of style."
From Massive Attack's point of view, the timing is perfect. "It’s a career honour to collaborate with an artist of the magnitude, originality and integrity of Tom, but this track is arriving in an atmosphere of chaos," they said in a statement. "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 & abandoned mind."
The song, an unabashed war protest track, is the first Massive Attack song to be excluded from Spotify, following the duo's September 2025 announcement. Instead, it's available for sale on their website, either digitally or on a 12" vinyl. The vinyl contains a spoken word B-side track from Waits called "The Fly."