Massive Attack’s Heligoland is only their fifth album and arrives seven years after 100th Window, its previous record which featured only Robert “3D” del Naja. With Massive Attack back as a band, we grabbed our Sennheiser RS160s to see whether this new LP is truly massive or deserving of attack. Read our Heligoland review now to find out.
Like their early-90s Bristol contemporaries, Portishead and Tricky, Massive Attack have never been ones to rush. Seven years since del Naja created the slightly anaemic 100th Window, Heligoland is a far more vital record but one that drips with Massive Attack’s now familiar darkness and paranoia.
Pray for Rain is drenched in doom and gloom, a dark breakbeat track that suggests that Massive Attack are not settling into comfortable middle age. Elsewhere the return of Grant “Daddy G” Marshall is clearly in evidence on Splitting the Atom where he hammers the bankers in rapid fire raps over a bouncing beat.
Marshall is the only vocalist in Massive Attack’s onslaught. It’s always made use of cameos and there’s beautiful contributions from Martina Topley-Bird on Psyche and Babel and a soulful turn from modern pop music’s Mr Do-it-all, Damon Albarn, on Saturday Come Slow. The pick of the bunch though is Elbow’s battered frontman Guy Garvey slipped into a brand new suit of bleeps and beats on Flat of the Blade.
Heligoland vibrates with detail, electronic beeps and clicks swell while voices emerge from the sonic soup. The effect shifts from sinister to soulful to vaguely comforting, sometimes in the same song. It’s the kind of intimate record that Massive Attack have always been masters of, recalling the late-night slow burn of the band’s previous record Mezzanine.
Massive Attack’s tendency to stab their subtle melodies through with pranging paranoia is still present and correct but the coterie of guests bring mix welcome rays of light in with their relentless darkness. There’s still clearly a place for their depth in often throwaway world of modern music.
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