Heligoland

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Average Customer Rating:	4.0
Release Date:	2010-02-09
Publisher:	Virgin Records
Artist:	Massive Attack
Track 1:	Pray For Rain
Track 2:	Babel
Track 3:	Splitting The Atom
Track 4:	Girl I Love You
Track 5:	Psyche
Track 6:	Flat Of The Blade
Track 7:	Paradise Circus
Track 8:	Rush Minute
Track 9:	Saturday Come Slow
Track 10:	Atlas Air
Weight:	0.21 pounds

Product Categories

General; Electronica; General; General AAS; New & Notable Dance & Electronic; Featured New Releases; CD Album; Main Albums (Discography Pages); Main Albums

Product description

HELIGOLAND is the much anticipated fifth studio album from legendary trip-hop duo MASSIVE ATTACK and the first new studio album since 2003's critically-acclaimed 100TH WINDOW. HELIGOLAND features an all-star cast of guest vocals from DAMON ALBARN, HOPE SANDOVAL, MARTINA TOPLEY-BIRD, GUY GARVEY and TUNDE ADEBIMPE. Long time cohort HORACE ANDY makes a return alongside Massive Attack founding members ROBERT DEL NAJA (3D) and GRAND MARSHALL (DADDY G). Damon also plays bass on `Flat Of The Blade' and keyboards on `Splitting The Atom' while PORTISHEAD's ADRIAN UTLEY plays guitar on `Saturday Come Slow'. The band also collaborated with DFA's TIM GOLDSWORTHY on selected tracks. The cover artwork features an original image by ROBERT DEL NAJA. Over the last three years Robert Del Naja has written and produced soundtracks for a number of films and documentaries, including `Trouble In The Water', '44 Inch Chest', `In Prison My Whole Life' and `Gomorra', the latter for which he won the David Di Donatello Award for Best Song. Massive Attack also won the Outstanding Contribution to British Music Award at the Ivor Novello Awards.

Customer reviews

« Sonic Abuse »

Long time Massive fan. Can't say how much it means for the duo to reunite on this album. We got all Del Naja on 100th Window, I loved it, and it revealed exactly what he brings to the table- tripped out psychedelic mysticism. If thats too blurry, thank god Daddy G is back to ground us in rumbling rhythmic bass glory. The beat is secure on this album, really interesting and continually enjoyable.

To get down to brass tax, I'd say this is as amazing a Massive album as any. Upon my first experience listening, I was left wanting, but I've learned to give it time- now every time Pray For Rain hits my ears I am so excited to play the album out. Unexpectedly I skip the Splitting The Atom and Flat Of The Blade every time. I'd say Splitting The Atom is better composed than Flat Of The Blade, but they both crawl and I think the rhythms chosen are just not my taste. Overwhelmingly so on Flat. Every time I hear the intro of Splitting, I want the premier beat to continue as the song- not turn into some evil carnival beat. I certainly dig that style at a lot of times, but here, its not for me. My two lovers are Girl I Love You and Saturday Comes Slow. They get the point across so well, they composition is done so perfectly, theres not a point in either of them which I want to take out or skip. I put them back to back on repeat consistently. Psyche, Paradise Circus and Rush Minute come in a close second, They are all truly great but sometimes leave me feeling overloaded. Also the thing I somewhat dislike about Psyche is it constantly reminds me of Weird Fishes off Radiohead's In Rainbows. On the plus, Paradise Circus is so gorgeously sexy- a throwback to colossus Mezzanine's Black Milk and Dissolved Girl. Those vocals and rhythms are intoxicating. When these exceptional female vocalists lay down on a Massive beat vocals as seductive as they do, some kind of lust seeps out of the speakers- always gets me. Pray For Rain is ill, it always pulls me in- theres something intrinsic in it that I can't put my finger on- my guess is a simplistic beauty. Thats what gets me. The rest of the album is cool too (Babel, Atlas) but they just haven't gotten my attention yet- good or bad. Atlas somewhat pisses me off starting off as predictably as it does after Saturday Comes Slow.. but I can't say its a bad song. I just think it pales in comparison to Sat for me.

So, thats how I feel. The last three Massive albums, including this one, have all entered a place in my heart and cd rotation. If you love deep music, this triphop duo is the last block on the house. You can't go any where from here. Portishead, Tricky (former member) etc. I love, but Massive kills it.

Rating: (5 out of 5) @ 2010-03-10

« A Pleasant Surprise! »

I purchase and listen to a lot of electronica music. It seems to be my genre of choice in recent years. The Amazon computer seems to understand this and makes up an enticing list of electronica items and offers them as recommendations for my consideration. I've discovered a lot of good CDs in this way. One of my recommendations for the last several years has been various albums by Massive Attack, but I've never bought. I'm not certain why. Maybe it's the name. In any case, I've always opted for something else, except I finally bought the latest "Heligoland" CD recently, perhaps just out of curiosity.

Well, "Heligoland" was a surprise, that's for certain! I was somehow expecting something brash and bombastic and I got something soft and mellow. Let's put it this way, the music of Massive Attack is closer to that of Air than to that of The Chemical Brothers or The Crystal Method. I tend to prefer the bombastic, I might add. But that's OK, soft and mellow is fine on an occasional basis and I'm enjoying "Heligoland." The music is simple and basic. The rhythmic patterns are nicely laid down and very interesting. The tone progressions are nicely done. The melodies are pleasant and airy. The vocals seem to be wimpy and it takes time to get used to them, but after a while I got to like them. It's computer-based music, but it's less obvious than other similar efforts and shows a lot of thought. Plus, there's all kinds of guest artist in additional to the computer tracks. It's labeled as Trip Hop, but I wouldn't want to pigeonhole it. Massive attack is a one-of-a-kind act and obviously a very experimental effort that sounds like nothing else. It's very pleasant and interesting music!

Well, I'm surprised, and it's a pleasant surprise. This music is quite well done. I may look into a couple more Massive Attack albums. Thank you, Amazon computer.

Gary Peterson

Rating: (5 out of 5) @ 2010-03-03

« Give it a couple listens, and you'll love it. »

Nearly flawless. I didn't care much for "Psyche", but the rest of the album is perfect.

Rating: (5 out of 5) @ 2010-03-03

« Heligoland 2010 »

2010 torniamo a parlare dei Massive Attack, il loro atteso album si può finalmente ascoltare.
Tornano insieme a timonare Robert Del Naja e Daddy G.
Come al solito non mancano di sorprendere, siamo davanti ad un'altra svolta artistica.
Difficile ripetere le atmosfere cupe, crepuscolari, rarefatte che si godevano dalla 100th Window.
Spunta un timido raggio di sole, il suono non è più così dilatato, complici ospiti illustri ; Tunde Adebimpe (Tv on the radio) Guy Garvey (Elbow) Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz...) ma non mancano i soliti noti Martina Topley Bird e l'onnipresente Horace Andy.
E' un elettronica intrisa di influenze disparate quella che ci propongono i nostri ed il risultato non è del tutto omogeneo, si percepiscono spunti di Chemical Bros. che sfociano nel cantato dub di Horace Andy su piste di free jazz (Girl I love you) Spunta un timido raggio di sole, il suono non è più così dilatato, complici ospiti illustri ; Tunde Adebimpe (Tv on the radio) Guy Garvey (Elbow) Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz...) ma non mancano i soliti noti Martina Topley Bird e l'onnipresente Horace Andy.
E' un elettronica intrisa di influenze disparate quella che ci propongono i nostri ed il risultato non è del tutto omogeneo, si percepiscono spunti di Chemical Bros.
Si respira però un aria scarna figlia di una produzione piu minimale, sonorità così più spoglie.
La sensazione ad un primo ascolto è che manchi qualcosa...
In Flat of the blade viene in mente il Thom Yorke solista.
Successivamente Paradise circus rapisce completamente con quei clap clap tanto cari ai Flaming Lips ed una linea di basso così oscura e penetrante come mai nell'album.
Saturday come slow inizia come un pezzo dei Gorillaz poi matura e si trasforma piano piano in quello che diverrà certo un classico dei Massive Attack.
Il disco finisce nel migliore dei modi con Atlas air, una base ritmica coinvolgente, uno straordinario organo e ancora un soffio di Chemical Bros.
In conclusione questo quinto lavoro dei padri del Trip-hop li vede attingere a piene mani ai tanti colleghi del panorama contemporaneo e non, (nel brano conclusivo c'è traccia anche di echi di Beatles, Tomorrow never knows) loro che hanno influenzato si dalla loro prima pubblicazione oggi si guardano un po' intorno...

Rating: (3 out of 5) @ 2010-03-01

« Sub-performance production. »

I love MA. I love them so much I went to a few of their live shows. This album, on the other hand, seemed rushed. Like the deadline to get the album out was more informant than finishing the album. Maybe I'm looking too much into the production side of the album.

Bottom line: Get this album if you truly do admire Massive Attack, which I did. All and all, I like it but unfortunately it's not my top MA pick.

Hope this helps from a real MASSIVE ATTACK Fun.

Good Luck.

Rating: (2 out of 5) @ 2010-03-01

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