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43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Difficult, but much more rewarding than it sounds at first., February 9, 2010
Massive Attack albums are rarely immediate. Same with Heligoland: at first, the synths at the beginning of "Splitting The Atom" and "Flat Of The Blade" sound off-key and simplistic. I heard the three-note lead in "Paradise Circus" and wondered how on earth that simple sound could sustain a five-minute song.
But when I listened to "Paradise Circus" a few times, my perception started to change. The clattering, echoing drum track combined with the lead to create an eerie atmosphere. Above all, the song has possibly the most intimate vocal performance of any Massive Attack song. Hope Sandoval's voice is scratchy, but the way you can hear every minute shift in her throat, together with the deliberately slow pace of the vocal, gives an impression of a wide-awake, intensely focused late-night rumination. It's a remarkably sexy song, but it also expresses uncomfortable qualms: the lyrics say that "the devil makes us sin," and that's exactly how the song sounds, like someone giving in to temptation, but feeling uneasy about possible divine repercussions.
The entire album is characterized by this subtle feeling, like constantly looking back over one's shoulder. Heligoland sounds softer and more electronic than, say, Mezzanine, without those overdriven guitars. But it also sounds much more swampy and dissonant (maybe "sullen" might be a good word to describe the tone of the drums in "Pray For Rain") than Protection. This makes it difficult to like the album on the first listen, but at some point, one starts to appreciate the spooky, off-kilter atmosphere. The haunted-house keyboards and strings are somewhat reminiscent of The Knife's Silent Shout, one of the best albums of the past decade.
And just when you think that the music sounds too simple, there's some kind of twist. Toward the end of "Paradise Circus," there is a break with soft strings, and after that, some dark, reverberating piano chords come in to very strong effect. The downtuned echo of the chimes opening "Pray For Rain" is both pretty and creepy. It is soon strangled by the overbearing drums; halfway through the song quiets down, then builds back up in a loud, dark drone, and then unexpectedly breaks into a more gentle-sounding plateau. Once you register everything that's going on, you see how original it is. The keyboard lead in "Splitting The Atom" eventually sinks into a dreamy ambient outro. Many songs don't end the way you expect them to.
"Girl I Love You" is also a lot more interesting than you might expect from the requisite Horace Andy song (especially one with such a generic title). It is similar to the classic "Angel," it's got the dub bass line, the reverb in the background, and the crashing, loud crescendo -- but, incredibly, it does all of those things better than "Angel." It's a lot more energetic, with a fast dance beat. Instead of the grinding guitars (which were powerful, but honestly a bit plodding), there is what sounds like a brass section in a haunted circus. And it also helps that Horace Andy turns in his best, smoothest Massive Attack vocal yet -- not bad for a guy who's pushing sixty!
Unexpectedly, "Atlas Air" is Massive Attack's most danceable song, with a bracing house beat and an awesome echoing, multi-layered keyboard hook. Even more unexpectedly, Robert Del Naja finally puts a new spin on his mumbling vocal style and sort of speak-sings to the rhythm. In the process, he gets backed by these amazing reverberating electronic chimes that contrast his voice perfectly and give it an ominous edge. Eventually, there's a blaring noise breakdown. This song should be a hit.
I should say that Heligoland moves very far from Massive Attack's hip-hop roots. Robert Del Naja only takes the lead on two songs, probably to compensate for hogging the limelight on 100th Window. Even then, he does no rapping, and instead prefers the restrained speak-singing style that I mentioned above. Grant Marshall gets one verse on "Splitting The Atom," but even there he sort of recites the words without really rapping per se. As if to underscore the departure from rap, Heligoland brings in a bunch of other male singers, including Damon Albarn, who gives a reliably good, plaintive vocal performance on "Saturday Comes Slow," which is good, but sounds a bit like a Blur ballad.
But then, we expect every Massive Attack album to be a departure, don't we? The originality of Heligoland is more subtle than, say, the difference between Mezzanine and Protection, and takes time to really sink in. However, though the sullen, stifling production and deceptively simple melodies may throw one off at first, they actually conceal surprising, multi-segmented song structures and pinprick-inducing atmosphere.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
mixed, February 26, 2010
I was looking forward to Massive Attack's latest release, coming a number of years after "1000th Window".
I've always enjoyed Massive Attack's music, right from "Blue Lines" and past "Mezzanine". The mix varies from record to record, with "Blue Lines" being very much hip-hop oriented, whereas "Mezzanine" is very dark and sounds almost like rock in some places. "Protection" is somewhere in between the two. Massive Attack always mixes it up, and sometimes are unclassifiable in terms of genre.
This latest review seems to be another sign of the times. I also have Portishead's latest "Third", and it appears that the two bands have been comparing notes. The latest albums from both reflect a similar aesthetic, with more sparse beats, particularly in the first few tracks of this release. However, I feel a bit manipulated, as though the track order is the band's deliberate way of setting up listeners for a new experience. Only later tracks on this release start to resemble what we have come to expect from this band.
Overall, it only works in parts. The first track, "Pray for Rain" is the best example of this new, sparse aesthetic. It's almost acapella. But as things get better deeper into the disc, it appears that Massive Attack has become more abashedly derivative. "Rush Minute" has EXACTLY the same opening drum line as Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi is Dead", but fails to do anywhere near as much with it as the song progresses. In fact, the entire song seems to be based on that classic drum line. It's not a *bad* song, but haven't you come to expect a bit more originality from these guys?
And in another song, I hear exactly the same simple, three-note dark chromatic minor chord progression that is used as the theme song to "28 Weeks Later".
The final two tracks, "Saturday Come Slow" and "Atlas Air" are the highlight of this disc. The former is also somewhat sparse, but with pleading, heartfelt lyrics and singing, and a surprising amount of soul for trip-hop. I've always felt that MA have always balanced the rapping and singing in their song selection very well, with the sung songs tending to be the stronger of the two. "Saturday Come Slow" is thankfully no exception. "Atlas Air" finally gives us that quintessential Massive Attack sound. It is built on a catchy melody that is layered upon in interesting ways. It is probably the only song on this record that upon hearing it, I knew right away that it was Massive Attack.
Overall, this is a much softer, gentler disc than "Mezzanine", and much less unabashedly hip-hoppy than "Blue Lines". I give MA credit for continuing to blur genre lines and attempting to break new musical ground, but unfortunately, "Heligoland" will not go down as being nearly influential as either of their two earlier, seminal efforts.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not the most exhuberant come-back, but..., February 23, 2010
Massive Attack.
Just the name itself suggests waves of dubby synths, deep basslines, martial yet half-asleep beats and croony vocals. Sure, they helped define a genre for the 90s, that lame "trip hop" tag so many claimed to be part of and so few deserved, producing much groundbreaking music, especially in the shape of their debut "Blue Lines" (1991), which helped set DJ culture into the mainstream, and "Mezzanine" (1998) that added heavy, howling guitars in the mix to a mostly stunning effect.
So, what's to expect from this, their 5th album proper in a mere twenty years career ? Well, as many other reviewers noted, a bit of the same and something different at once. First striking thing is the actual sound of the whole record. Some pointed out a supposed return to the coldness of "Mezzanine", but that's not at all what I hear here. If "100th Window", their 2003 effort, was a letdown to many fans, being more of a 3D solo effort than a collective work, in fact it furthered the post-punk hint "Mezzanine" suggested, replacing the loud guitar shriek with icy electro beats. The results were, to say the least, mixed, but at least it was still seeking forward, sonically speaking. On "Heligoland", by contrast, everything is understated, from the drum patterns to the shy basslines, from a quiet organ part in the background to voices you feel are more dreamt than actually performed. That's a record that almost begs forgiveness for existing at all, rather than punching its pride in your face, which is why it probably won't get among die-hard fans (let alone the mainstream) the same praise as their giddy peaks mentioned above.
Take, for example, languid opener "Pray For Rain", magnified by TV On The Radio's Tunde Adebimpe ; on previous records, songs like "Safe From Harm", "Angel", "Protection" and even "Future Proof" were kicking proceedings in panache and style, but here you get a moody lament over a tense rolling drumbeat that keeps things tight but never to the point of explosion. If there's a revolution this time around (and as far as I know nobody pointed this out yet), that's precisely the fact that, for once, Massive Attack seem to have opted for a rather organic simplicity instead of creating the beat monster everyone expected (especially in the wake of the awesome "United Snakes" released in 2006 as the flip to "False Flags", and that could have been a welcome addition here).
Yet for all simple it appears, "Heligoland" is a much thought of record, being neither minimal nor easy, it's just that the main body of work hides behind the curtains. As always, the vocalists guestlist must have been quite helpful too : the two Martina Topley-Bird contributions, on the false calmdown "Psyche" and the tense "Babel" shine on, while, oddly, the exquisitely lightweight "Paradise Circus" - an obvious choice for the single - could have been an outtake from that singer's great LP, "Blue God"... except that it's performed (almost haunted, more like) by ex-Mazzy Star diva Hope Sandoval. Also, while not being a big Elbow fan to be frank, I have to give an accolade to their frontman Guy Garvey, who provides his wonderful, almost atonal falsetto on "Flat Of The Blade", making that difficult seemingly weird song sound like an early Peter Gabriel lost gem. Overall the record is less diverse but more consistent than other Massive LPs ; like another reviewer rightly pointed out, there's no real standout tracks yet there's no filler either (I still can't figure out, though, why Damon Albarn has been casted for the relatively dull "Saturday Come Slow", apart from his obvious friendship with the band).
Still, for all great those guests' performances are (and it has to be noted that for each one of them, the backing tracks seem to have been made up especially this time more than ever), it's from 3D himself and regular partner Horace Andy that the best comes again here ; at first together with Daddy G. on the narcotic anthem "Splitting The Atom", then the latter delivers on "Girl I Love You", which despite what its unworthy title might suggest, is a broody reggae-rock hybrid, driven by an epileptic bassline, while, like on "100th Window", the former gets to sound alarmingly worried and warmly seductive at the same time. At that, "Rush Minute" and "Atlas Air" are arguably the best things here, almost towers of song reaching the same heights the frightening "Antistar" did as the closer on the much maligned predecessor to this album.
So overall, "Heligoland" might not be as groundbreaking as the stuff Massive Attack are most known for, but it showcases a collective (with the back of Daddy G, largely absent from the previous decade's output) daring to experiment in his own field, which will be fair enough for some, and disappointing for others. But believe me, a bit like their underrated "Protection" (1994), that beast of a sensitive record (their best effort in my opinion, still), this really, almost physically, GROWS on you.
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