[Review] [Listen] – Massive Attack – Heligoland (2010)
Massive Attack’s music is so timeless that it’s hard to believe it’s been seven years since their last album “100th Window”. When “100th Window” was released they had waited five years since the album before that, Mezzanine, so this being a seven year wait for “Heligoland” means we’re in for a treat. Right?
“100th Window” was a mixed bag in terms of it’s reception by the public, mostly enjoying favourable reviews but not getting the kind of coverage that their previous albums did and many people saw it as a step in the same direction of Mezzanine as opposed to a step forward away from Mezzanine. Being a fan of TV On The Radio I’m drawn to almost anything that their singer Tunde Adebimpe appears on, and he makes an appearance on “Pray For Rain”, the opening track on “Heligoland”. His unique voice lends weight to the song, carrying it through the deep drum rolls and melancholy piano riff that follows him to it’s 6:44 ending. It’s a slow start to the album, considering the opening songs from their previous albums have been huge, “Safe From Harm, “Protection” and especially “Angel”. When I first heard “Angel” I had never heard anything like it before, it set the scene for a uniquely absorbing and dark album, but “Pray For Rain” doesn’t have the same impact. “Babel” is more upbeat, a distorted drum beat leads up to a simple bass line as Martina Toply-Bird’s delicate vocals wrap around it like a blanket, trying to make sure it doesn’t go anywhere, which it doesn’t, following the same route from start to finish.
So far, not so good.
As “Splitting The Atom” starts my hope picks up, a heavy beat and organ-like hook repeat for the first 30 seconds and then a low, “Candyman”-like voice drops in, the kind that makes you nervous to go to sleep at night, “The baby was born/Nettles and Ferns/The evening it chokes/The candle it burns/This disguise covers/Bitter lies/Repeating the joke/The meaning it dies”. It’s the first indication so far that there might just be something on here to put it on par with Mezzanine, and as “Girl I Love You” starts, the album’s fourth track, it actually sounds like something from the Mezzanine sessions. A rolling thunderous bass line is eventually caught up by a repetitive drum beat and Andy Horace’s distinctive voice (heard on some of MA’s biggest and best songs), echoing into the distance as the song picks up and gets raucous before sitting back down and taking it easy towards the end. “Psyche” starts off sounding like something you’d hear Rodrigo Y Gabriella play, a quick acoustic guitar picks away and again Martina Topley-Bird takes the lead on vocals but that’s about as far as the song goes and so far it’s the weakest (and most out of place) song on the record.
Another notable guest appearance on “Heligoland” is Guy Garvey, lead singer with Elbow. He gives his dulcet tones to “Flat Of The Blade”, a 5:30 sullen, vibrating tune comprising of Guy crooning alongside the alien-like electronic beat, “I’m not good in a crowd/I got skills I can’t speak of/Things I’ve seen will chase me/To the grave/I’m not good in a crowd/I got skills I can’t speak of/Over there”. With what sounds like someone drilling holes into the side of a washing machine in the background that slowly dies away, strings take its place as the song ends on the electronic twinklings that populated the opening. The last third of the album does what the first third did with the first being slow to start, the last is slow to end and you almost just want it to.
“Rush Minute” offers almost five minutes of the same electronic drums and guitar refrain that switches up the pace and then slows back down again towards the end, with Massive Attack founder Robert Del Naja talk-singing over the top in a low, dejected tone. “Saturday Come Slow” features Damon Albarn and is one of the highlights of the album. As it strides from side to side, a bassy guitar and heavy background beat make way for Albarn’s mellow tones, pining a sentiment of an insecure love and asking “Do you love me?/Do you love me?/Or is there nothing there?”. The album’s ender is “Atlas Air” an almost Hip-Hop venture with trip-hop rumblings that trundles on for nigh-on eight minutes, failing to really go anywhere other than “on”.
After seven years I expected so much more from “Heligoland” and all in all it has maybe three strong tracks in “Splitting The Atom”, “Girl I Love You” and “Saturday Come Slow”. Massive Attack are taking longer and longer between albums so if Heligoland is anything to go by we’ll be waiting 10 years for them to spawn only two decent songs.
4/10
Worth checking out: Portishead, Tricky, UNKLE
Buy “Heligoland”
Listen Before You Buy – “Heligoland”
