Lyric discussion by GMan2012 

Cover art for Atlas Air lyrics by Massive Attack

Atlas Air is an airline who were going bankrupt until they got a contract to transport military supplies to war zones for the US and various other countries.

3D had this to say about it ...

There are lots of mixed messages in there and this was a song that changed direction a few times. It ended up being almost about rendition, about secret flights and torture. But it's not really something that's easy to sing about. Some of it's actually sung from the point of view of those who actually empower themselves and actually are the perpetrators of these crazy situations. It's like stepping into different shoes. It's kind of ironic, like, "let's go on a holiday to a secret prison we've got lined up for you as a package deal".

The track was meant to be slightly schizophrenic. I had the Middle Eastern drum part. It had the very analogue organ part which also felt it could have been seen slightly Turkish but European as well and the drums, disco but slightly Arabic. And then obviously the keys at the end just going off, electronically, in a more twisted fashion.

HAHAHAHA, like Group 4 on Mezzanine it's about a failing corporation! That's so weird, isn't it?

Well, maybe considering the subject matter I shouldn't have laughed THAT hard...