About

- A TAV Essential Listening Album -

Anyone experiencing Massive Attack’s third studio effort for the first time instantly imagines the album soundtracking their life’s most pivotal and dramatic moments. It’s certainly no wonder that Mezzanine has gone on to soundtrack some of the most memorable scenes in film and television history.

Every song on this LP feels cinematic on both the conscious and subconscious levels. Conceptualised by their lead Robert Del Naja who wanted to create something darker than the Bristol crew’s previous works, Mezzanine marks a noticeable departure from the jazzy, laidback sound of Blue Lines and Protection. Anchored by classic tracks such as “Teardrop”, featuring Elizabeth Fraser from Cocteau Twins, this album’s bleak and blurry trip hop tones invariably embeds itself in the listener’s echoic memory. — The Analog Vault

Increasingly ignored amidst the exploding trip-hop scene, Massive Attack finally returned in 1998 with Mezzanine, a record immediately announcing not only that the group was back, but that they'd recorded a set of songs just as singular and revelatory as on their debut, almost a decade back.

It all begins with a stunning one-two-three-four punch: "Angel," "Risingson," "Teardrop," and "Inertia Creeps." Augmenting their samples and keyboards with a studio band, Massive Attack open with "Angel," a stark production featuring pointed beats and a distorted bassline that frames the vocal (by group regular Horace Andy) and a two-minute flame-out with raging guitars. "Risingson" is a dense, dark feature for Massive Attack themselves (on production as well as vocals), with a kitchen sink's worth of dubby effects and reverb. "Teardrop" introduces another genius collaboration -- with Elizabeth Fraser from Cocteau Twins -- from a production unit with a knack for recruiting gifted performers.

The blend of earthy with ethereal shouldn't work at all, but Massive Attack pull it off in fine fashion. "Inertia Creeps" could well be the highlight, another feature for just the core threesome. With eerie atmospherics, fuzz-tone guitars, and a wealth of effects, the song could well be the best production from the best team of producers the electronic world had ever seen. Obviously, the rest of the album can't compete, but there's certainly no sign of the side-two slump heard on Protection, as both Andy and Fraser return for excellent, mid-tempo tracks ("Man Next Door" and "Black Milk," respectively). — (via John Bush // AllMusic)

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Label: Virgin 
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 180g
Reissued: 2023 / Original release: 1998
Genre: Electronic
Style: Trip Hop, Downtempo, Leftfield

File under: Downtempo
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