Massive Attack: Heligoland
Massive Attack: Heligoland
Friday, 05, Feb 2010 03:20
By Steve Braund.
Virgin, out February 8th
In a nutshell.
Subdued, measured, careful, infrequently engaging
What's it all about?
Massive Attack's fifth studio album and their first in seven years, Heligoland features a stellar line-up of guest vocalists including Damon Albarn, Elbow's Guy Garvey, Tunde Adebimpe from TV On The Radio, Hope Sandoval (formerly of Mazzy Star), Martina Topley-Bird and long-time cohort Horace Andy.
Who's it by?
One of the most respected and acclaimed production teams of all-time, Massive Attack are often credited with inventing the genre later dubbed trip hop. Following the departure of founding member Mushroom in 1999, Massive Attack now exist as the duo of Robert Del Naja (3D) and Grant Marshall (Daddy G).
As an example.
"I'm not good in a crowd/I've got skills I can't speak of..." - Flat Of The Blade
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Massive Attack are certainly not short of acclaim - this year they won the Outstanding Contribution to British Music Award at the Ivor Novellos - but, lacking a stand-out single to match Unfinished Sympathy, Protection, or Teardrop, Heligoland may fail to repeat previous successes.
What the others say
"Even the most cursory listen to Flat of the Blade informs you that they're still doing things that no one else does" - The Guardian
"Heligoland is not, for all its positives, a ground-breaking album." - Music Week
So is it any good?
Whenever an artist takes such lengthy lay-offs there is always the same fear - will they still be relevant, will we still care? Massive Attack have proved more adept than most though at defying expectations and moving on with each subsequent release - most notably the darkness and menace of Mezzanine which seemed to shatter the "trip hop" or "chill out" tag some had burdened them with.
Heligoland cannot help but disappoint in comparison. Perhaps a sense of predictability, of playing-it-safe, is inevitable for artists, or even for genres, at this late stage in their maturity (or even decline?) - but on their latest release Massive Attack seem terribly eager not to disappoint, not to taint the legacy, but never attempt the kind of aggressive reinvention that Portishead explored on Third.
So we get tracks like Babel. Mild drum n' bass leanings, spectral vocals - there is nothing inherently wrong with it, but nothing memorable either, so the track amounts to little more than a 'mood piece', and could have appeared on any forgettable mid-period Tricky album. Similarly, Paradise Circus gives Hope Sandoval a Beth Gibbons makeover. Folksy and sparse, building to a string laden crescendo - it's efficient but methodical and, worse, utterly predictable. Even the usually reliable Horace Andy, laying sweet vocal tones over the Mezzanine-lite of Girl I Love You, cannot lift the track to truly engaging status.
And that is a common problem with the guest vocalists on Heligoland. In the past Massive Attack always played to the strengths of their collaborators (Tracey Thorn never sounded better or more affecting than on Protection) but too often here their talents are squandered. The proposition of 3D and Daddy G going to work on TV On The Radio's spooked barbershop quartet is a tantalising one, but Tunde Adebimpe has rarely sounded as subdued as he does on Pray For Rain - an ominous build, but little else, and one of several tracks that feels drawn out for the sake of it. Elsewhere, Guy Garvey is simply miscast amidst a sea of burbling electronics and sounds like he's building up to a great cathartic Elbow chorus that never comes.
It comes down to Damon Albarn, of all people, to add some sincerity and warmth to proceedings on Saturday Come Slow - essentially a late-period Blur ballad, but brimming with a distinct personality that is lacking elsewhere. Other stand-outs include the relative simplicity of Splitting The Atom. An insistent wonky organ line overlaid with Daddy G's chanting and Horace Andy's distant croon, it is subdued but compelling - never falling into the trap of "chill-out" or "ambient". Atlas Air ends proceedings on a high. No guest vocalists - just Massive Attack finally flexing their musical muscle and allowing themselves to enjoy a bit of experimentation - kraut-rock breakdown and all.
Massive Attack are too consummately professional, too highly skilled, to ever make a truly bad record. It just comes as a disappointment, seven years on, that they have produced such an underwhelming, infrequently pleasurable one.
6/10