About a month or so ago, Jon was surprised to hear me say that I wasn't looking forward to the fact that Massive Attack was finally about to release a new album. He was probably surprised because I recently had introduced him to Massive Attack; I clearly loved the shit out of them and wanted to share Massive Attack's thick black trip-hop love with him and anyone else who would listen. Only now I wasn't excited about the fact that Massive Attack was finally releasing a new album after a fucking 7-year long wait (and essentially a 12-year wait, seeing as their 2003 release 100th Window didn't involve all the usual members), and this was understandably odd.
Here's why I was somewhat ambivalent: I had heard the track "Splitting the Atom," which had been leaked around 6 months or so ago, and which was to be included on the new album, Heligoland. And I'll be honest...it's a horrible track. The pulsating, beautifully dark music that I had fallen in love with had somehow been replaced by sheer gloomy loops, with an annoying distorted baritone voice that detracted further from the music. I was pretty worried that the decade-long collaborative hiatus had essentially killed off whatever semblance of Massive Attack's unique songcrafting ability might have remained.
But I would hate to pass judgement on one of my all-time favorite groups after hearing one song. So when it came out at the beginning of this month, I gave Heligoland a good few listens, put it down, and didn't come back to it until now. And while I'm still not insane about it, I've come around to it. I think it's a lot better than Pitchfork did (they ripped it a 5.0), and while it still has that stupid track on it, it also has some true highlights.
There are a lot of guest performances on the album, more than usual for the group. 4/5 of the album is made up of tracks featuring TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe, Elbow's Guy Garvey, Gorillaz's Damon Albarn, Martina Topley-Bird, and Horace Andy (a usual suspect with Massive Attack). I could go through each of them, but I have a feeling that different people will gravitate more towards different vocalists and tracks. All of them are good (with the exception of "Splitting the Atom" ... and I'm not a huge fan of the Guy Garvey track, which sucks because I love Elbow), but I think the second half of the album is where it comes to life – or, Massive Attack's idea of life. The nearly 8-minute closing track, "Atlas Air," is incredible. And "Paradise Circus," of which Keegan already posted a remix, is hauntingly beautiful.
With Massive Attack headlining at Sasquatch!, I have hope once again for this group. I'll likely return to give them another look once I see them live, at which time I will hopefully be able to complete my verdict. But until then, definitely give Heligoland a listen or two. Who knows when how fucking long we'll have to wait for their next album...
