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.