February 11, 201015 yr Author :heart: Paradise Circus... agreed - absolutely majestic, beautiful... and strangely elegant sounding. thisispop - I'd say this album is their most melodic since Blue Lines and Protection... but the melodies take longer to get under your skin - always the sign of a truly great work. And whilst I think Portishead's 'Third' is a masterpiece, at times it was incredibly challenging and hard to digest - and comparisons between the two are really unfair, I think, the 2 bands are travelling in very different directions these days. Bargain of the week is to be found at Asda - Heligoland, and all their top 10 CDs, are up on sale at £7 each.
February 11, 201015 yr I have to agree. I love Massive Attack but, while a couple of the tracks are beginning to grow on me, this still feels like a watered down version of former glories. I do love Paradise Circus though.
February 12, 201015 yr I listened to this once and thought it was great. The trouble is that now I can't stop listening to 'Paradis Circus' and I'm neglecting the rest of it. There's plenty time to get really into the rest of it though, it just sounds amazing, it's deep and moody yet uplifting, great job.
February 13, 201015 yr Author A quick listen this morning didn't do much for me. I don't think a 'quick listen' is justified, really.... Heligoland is, I can honestly say, to my ears, their best work. I played Mezzanine and Blue Lines recently - and neither of them sounded as great as Heligoland does to me now. A masterpiece.
February 13, 201015 yr This album really does nothing for me, bar Pray for Rain. I've never been a huge fan of Massive Attack though, so who knows.
February 16, 201015 yr I gave this a listen yesterday on headphones. I do like Paradise Circus. The one with Damon Albarn is ok and the one following that is my fave on the album. Everything else is sounding dull at the moment. It may well be a grower.
February 19, 201015 yr Amazing album... It grows from Babel to Paradise Circus which is a climax of the year for me so far All songs are good though
March 13, 201015 yr I've only just got this album after reading/ hearing good things about it and I'm absolutely loving it! Definitely one of my favourite albums of 2010. I've never really been a big Massive Attack fan, but then again I've only really known their 'big' songs ('Teardrop', 'Unfinished Sympathy' etc.). I'm interested in listening to their older material though after hearing 'Heligoland', but which album(s) do people suggest I start with? Reading through the comments in this thread it seems most think 'Blue Lines' is their best album. Is it similar to 'Heligoland' in sound?
March 14, 201015 yr It just doesn't live up to the rest of the album for me, it sort of plods along. It reminds me of Leftfield's Phat Planet in that it promises more tension in 30 seconds than it actually delivers as a full track. The rest of the album is very good though so it by no means spoils the album: 05 Angel 10 Risingson 10 Teardrop 09 Inertia Creeps 08 Exchange 09 Dissolved Girl 08 Man Next Door 10 Black Milk 08 Mezzanine 10 Group Four :wub: 07 Exchange (2)
March 14, 201015 yr It just doesn't live up to the rest of the album for me, it sort of plods along. It reminds me of Leftfield's Phat Planet in that it promises more tension in 30 seconds than it actually delivers as a full track. The rest of the album is very good though so it by no means spoils the album: 05 Angel 10 Risingson 10 Teardrop 09 Inertia Creeps 08 Exchange 09 Dissolved Girl 08 Man Next Door 10 Black Milk 08 Mezzanine 10 Group Four :wub: 07 Exchange (2) I agree. There's nothing wrong with Angel - I'd probably give it a 6 though. It's just the weakest track on the album. I think I'll go and listen to Mezzanine now. :)
March 14, 201015 yr Thanks for the advice, Aly and Dandy, I'll definitely check 'Mezzanine' out! Strangely enough I remember studying the album artwork (photography by Nick Knight) when doing photography as part of my A Level Art!
March 15, 201015 yr As we're talking about Mezzanine - anyone who hasn't already done so should listen to Depeche Mode's Ultra. A big influence on the making of Mezzanine.
March 18, 201015 yr Author Thanks for the advice, Aly and Dandy, I'll definitely check 'Mezzanine' out! Strangely enough I remember studying the album artwork (photography by Nick Knight) when doing photography as part of my A Level Art! Nick Knight's a genius.... :heart:
March 18, 201015 yr As we're talking about Mezzanine - anyone who hasn't already done so should listen to Depeche Mode's Ultra. A big influence on the making of Mezzanine. Not really mate.. I always thought "Home" was a total Massive Attack sound-alike... Not in a bad way, but, it was definitely influenced by the stuff Massive did on "Blue Lines" and "Protection"... "Mezzanine" has a bit of the old Nine Inch Nails style production on it (Russ will absolutely hate me for saying this, because he stubbornly refuses to acknowledge Trent Reznor's huge influence on production styles and recording techniques in the 90s/00s, but it's true...) on some tracks.. TBH, I'd say Depeche Mode in the 90s took some cues off of Trent as well, there was a definite change in their style from "Violator" to "Songs of Faith and Devotion" in favour of more darker, Darwave/Industrial tones, and it cant be mere coincidence that it came just after Trent did the absolutely seminal "Pretty Hate Machine"... Gary Numan took more than a few cues off Trent as well for his 90s/00s stuff...
March 18, 201015 yr Not really mate.. I always thought "Home" was a total Massive Attack sound-alike... Not in a bad way, but, it was definitely influenced by the stuff Massive did on "Blue Lines" and "Protection"... "Mezzanine" has a bit of the old Nine Inch Nails style production on it (Russ will absolutely hate me for saying this, because he stubbornly refuses to acknowledge Trent Reznor's huge influence on production styles and recording techniques in the 90s/00s, but it's true...) on some tracks.. TBH, I'd say Depeche Mode in the 90s took some cues off of Trent as well, there was a definite change in their style from "Violator" to "Songs of Faith and Devotion" in favour of more darker, Darwave/Industrial tones, and it cant be mere coincidence that it came just after Trent did the absolutely seminal "Pretty Hate Machine"... Gary Numan took more than a few cues off Trent as well for his 90s/00s stuff... Massive Attack have said it themselves that they were influenced by Ultra and it has the sparse dark basslines and guitar that cropped up on Mezzanine which I couldn't' really hear on Protection but I will go back and listen again to see if it predated Ultra I agree with the amazing work that Trent did. I especially love A Warm Place. The thing with Pretty Hate Machine is that I never liked the vocals and the lyrics were sometimes awful.
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