CASEY PHILLIPS: Over the past several years, I’ve learned to appreciate a lot of electronica artists like Pretty Lights and Daft Punk, but something about Massive Attack’s “Heligoland” is preventing me from embracing it with open ears.
BARRY COURTER: This was my introduction to Massive Attack, and the opening track, “Pray for Rain,” hooked me straight away. I very much like the sound and the Peter Gabriel-esque vocals on that track. I enjoyed much of the next few songs, too, but by the last few songs, I was bored by the repetitiveness of the music.
CASEY: Maybe I’m tripping up because the U.K.-based trip-hop duo’s fifth studio album, like all their albums, dabbles in a wide range of styles and features a number of guest vocalists. Thanks to some almost useless liner notes, it’s difficult to tell which of the six guest singers was involved on which tracks, but the pairings are really hit-or-miss.
Some work like a charm, like sexy digital jazz paired with a hushed vocalista on “Paradise Circus.” Others don’t, like the disinterested emo whiner who drags down the otherwise nifty stripped-down piano/drum accompaniment to “Rush Minute.” “Heligoland’s” best moment is undoubtedly the mid-album track “Psyche,” which matches dreamy, almost drugged-sounding disinterested female vocals to an insistent, bouncing rhythm.
Those moments that work demonstrate a careful attention to vocals as instrument; those that don’t seem to have ignored common sense.
BARRY: There is always a fine line between creative and banal, or even stupid, for me on albums that are heavily produced and/or feature a lot of electronic wizardry. Really well done electronica songs have a hypnotic aspect that wheedles its way into your brain like a drug. Really bad ones sound like somebody got a beta version of GarageBand for the first time and feels the need to touch every button. “Flat of the Blade,” for example, misses the mark. I like the vocals but don’t like the song.
CASEY: Members of Massive Attack certainly know their way around a studio, and the production is rarely to blame for a track not capturing the imagination. More often than not, I found myself wishing I could just ignore the vocals and concentrate on the framework the words were set within.
BARRY: It just felt a little disjointed to me overall. On some songs, I liked bits and pieces but not the whole, and I didn’t hear much that I hadn’t heard before from other groups.
CASEY: It’s easy to imagine “Heligoland” working just fine as the background to a low-key party, but as an focused listen, it’s just too scatterbrained to keep my attention.
BARRY: I can see keeping a couple of the songs on a playlist but not all of them. It does make me want to look up some of their older works.