Heligoland
Skeletal rhythms, analog warmth, and nocturnal dread. A collaborative, shadow-drenched masterpiece of modern trip-hop featuring iconic guest vocalists.
Skeletal rhythms, analog warmth, and nocturnal dread. A collaborative, shadow-drenched masterpiece of modern trip-hop featuring iconic guest vocalists.
Collaborative return
Damp basslines and cold brass scrape against hiss-heavy drum machines, mimicking the wet chill of a coastal winter night. You are pulled into a dark room of analog synthesizers and hushed, anxious whispers. It feels less like a polished studio production and more like a series of tense, late-night conspiracies caught on tape.
By mixing the guest vocalists so close to the microphone, the record leans into a heavy use of breathy vocals that makes every whispered confidence and intake of air feel intensely intimate.
Many critics warmly welcomed the album as a return to form after a lengthy absence, appreciating its rich, atmospheric production and the delicate balance of quiet intensity and diverse musical influences. Yet, some reviewers felt that certain tracks relied too heavily on familiar structural formulas or lacked the defining impact of the group's earlier era, leaving its ultimate longevity open to question.
“Although much of Heligoland suggests that Massive Attack might finally have burned out, the glowing embers of what they once had can still be glimpsed providing a light in the dark”Read review
“The sound of a group at the very height of their power, flexing their ample muscle, Heligoland is the album Massive Attack had to produce for fear of fading further from relevance. Now we can all learn to love them once again”Read review
“19 years is an eternity in pop music. Perhaps no one would have guessed Massive Attack would still be around after such a span. Well, they still are. They’re just not as massive”
“A lovely bummer, as always”Read review
“...it’s a logical progression from 100th Window, but because their progressions are neither commonsense nor predictable, it’s difficult to predict how it will hold up in terms of posterity”
“...the Bristol duo return with a potent dose of their psychedelic boom-bap aided by guest vocalists Tunde Adebimpe, Damon Albarn, Hope Sandoval and Martina Topley-Bird”
“Songs teetering on the edge of substance are muddied with conventional uses of tension, build and rhythm and vocal use that does nothing to retrieve the album’s detractively self-referential nature”Read review
“Massive Attack have managed to create an album that is both muted and intense, with a multitude of influences, sounds and genres”
“Some good tracks can’t hide the fact that this is the stuff of an identity crisis. It’s one thing to call on your famous friends to put flesh on your bones. It’s another if you leave the listener wondering if you’ve any spine at all”Read review
“Returning from a six-year long wilderness of soundtrack work and greatest hits, ‘Heligoland’ sees the duo back at the top of their game”Read review
“Heligoland doesn’t touch the perfection of Blue Lines, but few albums do. It is though a return to form from one of the real pioneering bands of our age”
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