Review: Massive Attack, ‘Heligoland’

7

SPIN Rating: 7 of 10
Release Date: February 09, 2010
Label: Virgin

With one tune called “Girl I Love You” and another on which Damon Albarn wonders, “Do you love me?”, Massive Attack’s first studio album since 2003 might appear to herald a move away from the English trip-hop outfit’s future-shock fatalism. Fear not, though: In opener “Pray for Rain,” TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe sings of failing systems over a rolling-thunder piano groove, while the synth-squiggly “Flat of the Blade” finds Elbow frontman Guy Garvey bemoaning his fear of crowds. A lovely bummer, as always.