Just as you can tell a lot about a person by the company he or
she keeps, so the scale of a band's ambition can be gauged by their
guest vocalists. On paper, then, Massive Attack's first album in seven
years should mark a return to their glory days and the unparalleled Protection and Blue Lines.
There are contributions from Elbow star Guy Garvey, 3D's old mucker
Damon Albarn, Hope Sandoval of 90s dream pop cult act Mazzy Star and, on
the opener, Pray For Rain, TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe. Best of
all, perhaps, for those who hated 100th Window, a 3D solo album
passed off as a Massive set, Daddy G has returned from his
"sabbatical", eager no doubt to save 3D from himself and inject a note
of something other than despair.
And yet, for the first half of Heligoland at least,
the Bristolians' fifth proper album is less than the sum of its
impressive parts. In a recent preview of the year ahead, one broadsheet
journalist described it as "ambitious" and a contender for the Mercury
award. Odd, given that unlike Portishead, say, who used their time in
exile to reinvent themselves, their fellow West Country act, in 2010,
sound as listless as they did seven years ago. As on 100th Window,
Mushroom's absence is pronounced, while 3D does little more than mutter
to himself – a one-time heavy hitter who's fallen on hard times. "I
want to get clean but I've got to get high," he half-raps on Rush
Minute, an intriguing opening in dire need of a song. Equally
forgettable are Babel and Psyche, both of which are sung by Martina
Topley-Bird and, like every record she has made since Maxinquaye, betray her desire to return to the mid-90s when drum'n'bass-flecked woozy soul was quite the latest thing.
Then, six songs into a characterless album, one on which ambience takes precedence over tunes, 3D and Daddy G unveil three stunning numbers that compare with anything in their back catalogue. The first, Guy Garvey's Flat of the Blade, evokes the weightless soul-jazz once particular to John Martyn, although the beats are shiny, skew-whiff and modern. "Things I've seen will chase me to the grave," warbles Garvey, the music reflecting his audible unease. It's followed, brilliantly, by Paradise Circus on which Hope Sandoval, both innocent and seductive, whispers her equivalent of Tracey Thorn's Protection over a minimal piano and handclaps. Then, on the mystical Saturday Come Slow, his cracking voice implying he's been up for half the night, Damon Albarn lays bare the vulnerability that his public air of self-confidence conceals. "Do you love me?" he cries over gently plucked strings, once again a pimple-faced, angelic teenager.
It's a question that must secretly trouble Massive too. Do we still love one of the best outfits of their age, a group that can still, infrequently, elicit accolades? Yes, but, if truth be told, the passion is subsiding and the 20-year itch is starting to kick in.
Then, six songs into a characterless album, one on which ambience takes precedence over tunes, 3D and Daddy G unveil three stunning numbers that compare with anything in their back catalogue. The first, Guy Garvey's Flat of the Blade, evokes the weightless soul-jazz once particular to John Martyn, although the beats are shiny, skew-whiff and modern. "Things I've seen will chase me to the grave," warbles Garvey, the music reflecting his audible unease. It's followed, brilliantly, by Paradise Circus on which Hope Sandoval, both innocent and seductive, whispers her equivalent of Tracey Thorn's Protection over a minimal piano and handclaps. Then, on the mystical Saturday Come Slow, his cracking voice implying he's been up for half the night, Damon Albarn lays bare the vulnerability that his public air of self-confidence conceals. "Do you love me?" he cries over gently plucked strings, once again a pimple-faced, angelic teenager.
It's a question that must secretly trouble Massive too. Do we still love one of the best outfits of their age, a group that can still, infrequently, elicit accolades? Yes, but, if truth be told, the passion is subsiding and the 20-year itch is starting to kick in.
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