Smoother than a baby covered in butter.

4.5/5

Though it has been seven whole years since British trip-hop inventors Massive Attack released their last full-length studio album (the widely celebrated 100th Window), I can tell you now that, with the upcoming release of their fifth LP, titled Heligoland, it has been WELL worth the wait. The record has been rumored to be released for the past 5 years in each consecutive year so far, so it’s nice to FINALLY have some closure. And some truly badass-sounding closure at that.

The band started truly ramping up to release the album in August of 2009, with the release of the EP “Splitting the Atom”, which contained two tracks from Heligoland (“Pray for Rain (feat. Tunde Adebimpe)” and of course “Splitting The Atom”), along with two which are remixes of songs that appear on the full-length (“Psyche” and “Bulletproof Love”, the latter of which was later renamed “Flat of the Blade”). Personally, I’m not too big a fan of “Pray for Rain”, even though I want to be, what with its inclusion of the singer from TV on the Radio, but something about it doesn’t sit quite as well with me as I’d like.

However, my favorite song on the whole album was later set behind a mini-documentary produced by the group that had to do with pornography. The song itself, titled “Paradise Circus (feat. Hope Sandoval)”, makes a lot of sense for the subject matter; it is probably one of the sexiest songs ever produced. What with Sandoval’s breathy, cool vocals and a just plain awesome keyboard line, this song truly pushes the record to its best.

Another very important part of the record is the contribution that Blur and Gorillaz main man Damon Albarn makes to the record, appearing on the partially acoustic “Saturday Come Slow”. It feels like these two musical geniuses were made to do something together, it comes off really well in this song.

Heligoland will be released on February 8th on Virgin Records and I highly, HIGHLY recommend buying it. Trust me, it will be very worth your time.

Splitting The Atom - Massive Attack


Thanks for reading, everyone!

Y!L!N!