Info â†’ What Your Soul Sings                   

• Development
• Additional Info
• Live Appearances
• Variations/Remixes
• Notable Quotes
• Lyrics
• External Links

What Your Soul Sings genesis came about from one of the very few leftover pieces of music composed during the 2000/2001 Lupine Howl period, which were mostly all scrapped. The gentle guitar riff and plucking of Angelo Bruschini that can be heard throughout What Your Soul Sings is what would be taken from those almost forgotten sessions to form the basis for the song when Massive Attack were writing what would eventually become 100th Window during 2002.

What Your Soul Sings was at one point in 2003 very close to becoming the third single released from 100th Window after Special Cases and Butterfly Caught. A preliminarily date of the 1st September was even given to certain record suppliers but no tracklisting or artwork details were ever leaked. For whatever reason, the single release was unfortunately canned at the last minute and Butterfly Caught remained the final single from 100th Window.

What Your Soul Sings was the second song after Future Proof to be written during the 100th Window recording sessions in 2002.

What Your Soul Sings (along with A Prayer For England) has only been played live four times in total. It’s first time been played was at The Academy in Glasgow,UK on 9th April 2003 and played then for the next three shows up until the Manchester Apollo show on the 24th April 2003. In the three days between this last show and the start of Massive Attack’s five night residency at the Brixton Academy in London,UK, it was publicly announced that due to health reasons (a dubious reason as it was latter revealed that Sinead had quit the music business entirely, latter of course to return to it a few years later) Sinead O’ Connor would be unable to tour for the entire remaining duration of the 2003 tour. Dot Allison would take over for Sinead’s vocals on tour substituting on Special Cases but not on What Your Soul Sings or A Prayer For England either for that matter and these two songs were never played live again.

MA.COM Instrumental Stems – While there was no official remixes of What YourSoul Sings released, the official Massive Attack website back in 2003, used short instrumental stem tracks from What Your Soul Sings (as well as other 100th Window tracks) as background music as you browsed the website. These stem tracks are collected here on the embedded player for you to listen to.

Neil Davidge on recording What Your Soul Sings – â€œThat started when we brought in a violinist friend of ours, Stuart Gordon, and he played just a simple three-note two-chord thing. I used Pure Pitch to rearrange the notation and create the arrangement, rather than get a sample CD of string notes and then use MIDI. It’s only through the context of Pro Tools that I can fully realize things like that and it’s an essential part of the way I work these days” [Sound On Sound Magazine – April 2003]

3D on What Your Soul Sings – â€œThat’s just Sinead being very optimistic and its all about self empowerment really. It’s very simple, very gentle and beautiful” [The Raft – February 2003]

Don’t be afraid
Open your mouth and say
Say what your soul sings to you

Your mind can never change
Unless you ask it to
Lovingly re-arrange
The thoughts that make you blue
The things that bring you down
Only do harm to you
And so make your choice joy
The joy belongs to you

And when you do
You’ll find the one you love is you
You’ll find you
Love you

Don’t be ashamed no
To open your heart and pray
Say what your soul sings to you

So no longer pretend
That you can’t feel it near
That tickle on your hand
That tingle in your ear
Oh ask it anything
Because it loves you dear
It’s your most precious king
If only you could hear

And when you do
You’ll find the one you need is you
You’ll find you
Love you