Massive Attack
Heligoland (Virgin)

Not that long-time fans should expect anything else, but man does Massive Attack sound like it could use some serious uppers on Heligoland. Missing in action for the better part of last decade, the U.K. trip-hop pioneers seemingly didn’t get a lot of sun during their hiatus. As bummed out as they were on 1998’s Mezzanine, they now sound like they’re standing at the bottom of a deep, dark hole. And damn if that doesn’t make for a strong early contender for this year’s best-of lists. If you’re one of those people who’s only happy when it rains ugly black buckets, get ready for your feel-good record of 2010.

Group mainstays Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall don’t have a lot of interest in going over old, familiar ground here. That’s evident right off the top, with “Pray for Rain” sounding more like a 4 a.m. comedown in underground New York than gloomy old Bristol. Get the feeling that Massive Attack suddenly seems more into getting high in Williamsburg with TV on the Radio than hitting the pub with Portishead? That’s no surprise considering that TVOTR’s Tunde Adebimpe is “Pray for Rain”'s guest vocalist.

The imported talent doesn’t stop there, with the list of the imported heavy hitters including everyone from Blur’s Damon Albarn to old-school reggae kingpin Horace Andy to alt-’90s chanteuse Hope Sandoval. Even the lesser-known names acquit themselves admirably; just when you thought that female vocalists didn’t come any more sultry than Lovage’s Jennifer Charles, former Tricky collaborator Martina Topley-Bird practically oozes sex on the steamy elastic-jazz chillout “Babel”.

Rather than go the safe route, Massive Attack is all about experimenting on Heligoland. “Splitting the Atom” drops into a dark-carnival sideshow tent just in time for witching hour, “Psyche” gives ’7os French pop an 808 heartbeat, and “Flat on the Blade” pumps glitch-techno full of codeine-doped cough syrup.

Challenging? Absolutely, the added bonus being that there are no shortage of beautiful moments despite the decidedly uncommercial, unapologetically dark approach Massive Attack has chosen to take. The next time it looks like it’s going to rain for a week, feel free to call in sick, turn out all the lights, and crawl under the covers for the day. The triumphant return that is Heligoland won’t make you feel any better, but it will at least let you know that someone out there is on the same fantastically miserable page.

Download This: “Babel”