Massive Attack - Heligoland (Virgin) **** (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Massive Attack - Heligoland (Virgin) ****

10:00am Saturday 6th February 2010 in

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AFTER the misery-fest of 3D’s pet project 100th Window, Daddy G has returned to the fold to help steer this eagerly-anticipated comeback. It starts in confused style with the episodic Pray For Rain, in which TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe struggles for cohesion amid the avant-dub confusion.

Martina Topley-Bird’s Psyche and Babel sound a bit weedy, but Horace Andy’s soaring Girl I Love You could charm the pants off a nun and the sub-Gnarls boom of Splitting the Atom should wiggle a toe or two.

Damon Albarn provides the vocal of the piece on the early hours crackle of Saturday Come Slow; Hope Sandoval’s Paradise Circus is a peach; and it’s worth giving Guy Garvey more than one chance on the initially imposing, jazz-flecked Flat of the Blade.