Primarily Found On:

100th Window

Also Found On:

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website – either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

Special Cases (Single Release), Chill Two – Oriental Lounge

29th Januray 2003

Duration:

05:09

Variations/Remixes:

Akufen Remix – A remix by Akufen AKA Marc Leclair, a Canadian musician whose music is often described as being minimal techno or microhouse. Included on all single releases.

Luomo’s Casing – A remix by Finnish electronic musician Luomo AKA Vladislav Delay renowned for his glitch and ambient take on house music. Included only on the vinyl release (both retail and promo), with one exception being a very rare CD-R promo.

Radio Edit – An truncated version of the song for radio playback. Included on all single and promo releases.

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge and Sinead O’ Connor

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

See 100th Window info section for further credit details by clicking here.

For the Collected version of the song, additional credits are:

Remastered by Mike Marsh at the Exchange and Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering.

Sampled:

N/A

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Sinead O’ Connor

Lyrics:

History:

Special Cases was probably the easiet and quickest song recorded for 100th Window. In terms of message it was quite simple and direct, about looking and observing the fragility of world and how chaotic somethings are and finding someone among all this to trust and emphatize with. Many people interperate this message as reflecting upon the state of the world was at the time it was written in 2002 with the impending war in Iraq and the uncertainty surrounding it.

The strings for the song were recorded by a 50 piece orchestra in June 2002 at Sony Studios in London,UK.

Special Cases was the third song after What Your Soul Sings to be written during the 100th Window recording sessions in 2002.

Additional Info:

When Special Cases was being made, it was earmarked from the beginning as being a potential single and would eventually end up being the first single release from 100th window and used to extensively promote the album. Before this though, 3D wished that A Prayer For England would be the first single release from 100th Window, however Virgin Records, wanted Special Cases to be the lead-off single, eventually persuadeing 3D to launch with Special Cases, leaving A Prayer For England as a possible second or third single release, that in hindsight would never happen.

Live Appearances:

Special Cases was first played live at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia on the 11th March 2003. It was played continuously during the first half of the tour but gradually saw less and less appearances live, until the end of the 2003 tour where it was omitted entirely. The violin sections of the song were played live on stage by violinist Lucy Wilkins. Sinead O’ Connor herself only did live vocals on this song a total of four times at shows in Glasgow and Manchester,UK during April 2003. All other live renditions of Special Cases feature Dot Allison substituting for Sinead O’ Connor’s absense. It has not been played since the 2003 tour.

Quotes:

3D on the initial recording of Special Cases – “It was one of the easiest songs that happened on this album because it was very direct and simple and very quick and when we played it for Sinead she just went ‘yeah i really love that i want to do something with that’ and she just wrote a song really quickly and it all just happened over night compared to the other songs” [100th Window Interview Disc – December 2002]

3D on Special Cases – “It is about suddenly feeling happy and lucky that your with someone you can believe in and trust. It’s that simple and direct” [100th Window Interview Disc – December 2002]