Prototypes for Steve.

So, in light of the recent revelation of the iPad to accompany the iPod and iPhone, I've been working on a few other product ideas the Apple folks might want to consider for their 2011 line. And before you accuse me of plagiarism, as I've no doubt people much cleverer than I have come up with this idea already, I'd like you to take it on faith that I have not Googled any of these and, as far as I know, I've conjured them entirely independently.

iPoe - Now, instead of buying an entire poem by infamous English writer Edgar Allen Poe, you can purchase and download selected lines from his most famous works without all the hassle of reading for more than a few seconds at a time. It's the same idea as how the iPod works with iTunes, only this would be for your iPad. Mmm, I can see the menus now... "Once Upon - Buy $0.99; As I Pondered - Buy $0.99," etc. I think it works well. Since songs are meant to be part of a cohesive project - the album - so too can couplets be orphaned from their parent work.

The INS iPid - This could be marketed specifically at the United States Immigration bureau like a little handheld database for identifying legal and illegal aliens. It would be like an iPod Touch but instead of scrolling through albums and song titles, the officer could scroll through names with photo ID's to compare whoever they're in front of with a Social Security Number, current US Passport information, etc. Should I take a bribe of $100 not to bring someone in who may or may not be a fully-documented legal citizen of the US? Yeah, there's an app for that.

iPoo - If it's one thing I've learned from celebrity news shows and TMZ, it's that Tom Cruise's baby's meconium is of vital importance to me, as was the time the girl on Flavor of Love got drunk and shat upon Flava Flav's carpet. Now with iPoo, I can keep track of celebrities' fecal matter in real-time like the Texts From Last Night iPhone app. Thanks, iPoo; I knew you'd take notice that Gwyneth Paltrow's baby's name is Apple.

iPud - You know how it looks when you're sitting at a table with your hands on your lap and texting? I think this joke has gone on long enough.

iPog - Ok, now this one is really genius. Apple's version of Pogs will run more cheaply and better than Microsoft's...but they only work with 10% of the available Pog surfaces out there. :(

iPot - So for 99 cents, you can take a monster-sized rip off a bong at one of Apple's patented Genius Bars, or $1.29 if you want to shotgun that hit to a friend. Apple's customer service reps will be available to teach you how to take your finger off the carb during normal business hours.

iPedo - I really do understand the recent efforts to have convicted sex offenders listed on local governments' websites and where they live so you can protect your kids from them. But when Justin Long endorses it and it becomes an iPhone app, it gets all light-hearted and cute and fun...just like the Alvin and the Chipmunks movies...which is also where you can find pedophiles.

Gorillaz - "Stylo."

Gorillaz brand new single, "Stylo," should be on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio show Monday night (thanks to gorillaz-unofficial for that info!), but in the meantime it appears the radio edit version has leaked from its promo cd. I wonder if this is related to its recent removal from an eBay auction?

"Stylo" is chock full of early electro-dance goodness. The bass synth and drum machine work perfectly together, as do the 2nd-verse-on windy keyboards and looped fx that remind me of the end of Chemical Brothers' "Buzz Tracks." 2-D enters with several layers of vocals for the pre-verse, and the verse is a romantic '80s ballad with near-muted megaphone back-up.

Bobby Womack rocks the chorus with all the passion one would expect from Terry Callier, and after the 2nd chorus, Mos Def wanders on-set to provide a smooth-as-always, if understated, verse of lyricism like only he can produce.

If "Stylo" or the new teaser trailers at gorillaz.com (loads of 16-bit wonder and ominous orchestral bits) are any indication of the sound of Plastic Beach, we're in for a hell of a Phase Three in the Gorillaz project.

Heligoland.

1. pray for rain

2. babel

3. splitting the atom

4. girl i love you

5. psyche

6. flat of the blade

7. paradise circus

8. rush minute

9. saturday come slow

10. atlas air

Seven years after Massive Attack released their fourth album, 100th Window, its follow-up,Heligoland is about to be released on Feb. 8 in the UK, and the following day here in The States.

Clocking in at far under an hour across 10 tracks, Heligoland is both concise and different. Featuring guest vocals by Tunde Adebimpe, Martina Topley-Bird, Guy Garvey, Damon Albarn, Hope Sandoval and long-time MA collaborator Horace Andy, this guest-star list may only be topped by Gorillaz' third album, Plastic Beach, due March 8.

Sounding about 75% more organic than 100th Window, Heligoland is full of handclaps; smooth, mostly-untreated vocals; acoustic guitar; beautiful, clear drums; and, at one point, a full horn section. Of course MA's signature synths, delay pedals, reverberated seething vocals by 3D and crunchy drum machines make triumphant returns as well.

Rolling drums and moody noir piano set the tone in "Pray for Rain" even before TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe croons prophetic about aftermath, decay, and that which once was. A bizarre turn of events brings "Rain" from Sam Spade to a near-Gospel bridge of joyous singing and brighter tones before returning to its brooding glory. At first listen I didn't care for the change-up, but once you've given it a few chances, I decided it serves only to lift us up to the heavens before dragging us down to the gutter.

"Babel," sung by Tricky ex-wife and collaborator Martina Topley-Bird, opens with raging crunchbeats, lingering keyboards and muted plucked bass strings before Martina takes over. Any concern over how crowded by the instruments she sounds is set aside by its chorus, at which point more warm electronics rise up and accompany her perfectly.

I reviewed "Splitting the Atom" when I first heard an extended cut of it several months ago. All you need to know is it locks onto a jaw-dropping cool drumbeat and keyboard line and rides it in the entire song, through verses and choruses. 3D's vocals haunt in the background throughout Daddy G's verses and Horace Andy's always smooth choruses, which have just a bit of tremolo accenting. 3D finally takes center stage in the post-chorus/pre-verse, a tinny poltergeist echoing a select few of G's lyrics, and returns near the end for a verse of his own.

"Girl I Love You." If you hear this and don't buy this album, you should have to wear a t-shirt saying as much so I know who to kick in the crotch. The throbbing bass and weird, echoing guitars supplement Horace Andy's pitch-perfect lyrics about love and loss until the even weirder horns kick in between verses and at the end, carrying "Girl" to impossible heights. The crescendo at the end of the 2nd verse is the single highest point of this album, which is a difficult target to hit.

Martina sings again on "Psyche," amidst looped acoustic guitar string plucks and clean electronic percussion. This is a really different side of Massive Attack, though it showcases their ability to take fast-paced, deliberate electronica and seamlessly weave lovely, gliding vocals over it, a trademark of theirs for years.

Elbow's Guy Garvey sings on "Flat of the Blade," and the music behind him is chock full of distorted skittering beats and warbly synthesizers. It sounds like the stuff of bad dream sequences in movies or Aphex Twin ambient collections, at least until the brass section lurches out of the shadows, but comes together in an odd sort of pleasing way. As much as I hate comparisons, I can't help but think of the first couple times I heard "Kid A," Radiohead's title track from their 2000 LP. So, so strange, but altogether lovely.

"Paradise Circus" was semi-debuted to the world with an...interesting video on massiveattack.com a few weeks ago. Hope Sandoval sounds incredibly effortless and soft, arriving at a sobering-up, late-night catharsis about love and sin amidst piano, xylophone, and one of Massive Attack's catchiest drumbeats since "Five Man Army," which soon gives way to an entirely organic drumset-and-bass 2nd verse and back again. After a quieted 3rd verse and false ending, "Circus" settles into its original groove and adds tragic strings before ending.

I think I need more time to listen to "Rush Minute," 3D's only solo vocal effort besides "Atlas Air." I love its steady early-'90s drum machine mixed with drumstick taps and computer mouse clicks, but so far it's popped out less to me than some of the other tracks. The guitar and bass repeat very four-on-the-floor patterns through each chorus, but there's a beautiful, desperate honesty in the piano, the kind most bands with a set of ivory keys would give their soul for in a moment. Undoubtedly a very good song, it doesn't strike me as having the greatness that "Girl I Love You" and "Splitting the Atom" have in spades.

Damon Albarn graces Heligoland with his vocals on "Saturday Come Slow," and he steals the show. "Saturday" could almost be on the next Gorillaz album, as it makes use of his oft-used quaint-and-quirky production, subdued drums and seemingly-perfect random acoustic guitar. Very pretty, but it feels a bit short.

Finally, the closer, "Atlas Air." The organ loop is brilliant and catchy, and 3D's vocals return with a vengeance. "It took all the man in me to be the dog you wanted me to be," he hisses, and I know exactly where he's coming from. Clocking in at nearly eight minutes, over a half-dozen instruments enter and drop out at practically random times throughout - and again, it all sounds so purposeful and never at all unwise or jarring. Nearly six minutes in, a furious synthesizer kicks in to carry us to the end of the album.

Man, what an album. Like a lot of my favorite bands with album releases in the last couple years, Massive Attack have churned out a set of songs that has a comfortable familiarity with SOME of my favorite elements of their work but approaches them from a very different angle, or vice versa. While it won't uproot MA's fanbase majority who declare Mezzanine their best album, it definitely has a lot of great, memorable songs across its 50+ minutes. Just cross your fingers with me that the bonus disc on the much-rumored deluxe edition will contain even more of their new material when it's supposedly released in May, and that their long-term rift with Tricky is starting to mend.