From the band that brought you trip-hop, the opening theme of "House" and the soundtrack for nearly every creepy movie sequence you've seen for the past decade, comes "Heligoland." Massive Attack returns with the band's first album in seven years, and it's about as close to melodic and breezy as you're ever likely to hear from these masters of gloom and doom.
As always, guest vocalists appear on nearly every single track, and the quality varies dramatically along with them. The highlight of the album is "Paradise Circus," sung by the sleepy-sounding Hope Sandoval, late of Mazzy Star. Keyboard, chimes, strings and an understated drumbeat complement Sandoval's voice perfectly, creating a spare but haunting sound. Another standout is "Pray for Rain," sung by Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio. The moody aesthetic here is closer to that of their seminal late-'90s album "Mezzanine," though it's less noisy and the vocals are easier to make out.
A few of the other tracks, however, fall short. "Atlas Air" takes a long time to go nowhere, and "Flat of the Blade" is too glitchy and stuttering to catch your ear. On the whole, the tightness and control that marked the band's earlier work is missing. Many of the songs, even the better ones, stretch out and occasionally lose their focus. The band seems to be moving away from hip hop entirely, concentrating instead on ambient, layered sounds which evoke moods but don't stick in your head the same way "Angel" and "Teardrop" from "Mezzanine" did. This is the stuff of movie music, not pop songs, and it comes as no surprise that both members of Massive Attack have spent the years since their last album focusing on just that.
Sadly, it may just be that Massive Attack's time has past. Groups like Portishead and The Knife have both made extraordinary albums in the past few years that carry on Massive Attack's unsettling electronic style and push it to new horizons. Still, this is an album worth checking out, especially if you dig their style and old albums. The landscape of electronic music may have changed, but Massive Attack still knows how to make you look behind your shoulder in unease.
3 Paws
Pros: Some fantastic vocalists backed by moody, spacey sounds.
Cons: Occasionally the songs are unfocused and too open-ended.
Download this: "Paradise Circus," "Pray for Rain."
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