Track Listing

1. Angel - Massive Attack, DelNaja, Robert "3-
2. Risingson - Massive Attack, DelNaja
3. Teardrop - Massive Attack, DelNaja, Robert "3-
4. Inertia Creeps - Massive Attack, DelNaja
5. Exchange - Massive Attack, Hillard, Bob
6. Dissolved Girl - Massive Attack, DelNaja
7. Man Next Door - Massive Attack, Holt, John
8. Black Milk - Massive Attack, DelNaja
9. Mezzanine - Massive Attack, DelNaja, Robert "3-
10. Group Four - Massive Attack, DelNaja
11. (Exchange) - Massive Attack, Hilliard, Bob

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2615 in Music
• Published on: 1998
• Released on: 1998-05-12
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com essential recording
The third full-length release from Massive Attack is a taste of the future of pop music--a future where precisely engineered events can be seamlessly partnered with the subtle complexities of a human voice. Since their first album, Blue Lines, they've been making similar magic happen with any one of several guest vocalists, but nothing like the way it happens on Mezzanine. This time they take the union further, moving it into a darker space in which the individual elements become less discernable. Guest vocalists are Sara Jay, Horace Andy (who also appeared on their debut), and Elizabeth Fraser (of Cocteau Twins), whose amazingly articulate and distinctive voice works so very well with the music of Massive Attack. --Paul Clark

Rolling Stone
[Mezzanine] shows that [Massive Attack's] creative edge is far from dulled.... [T]he record is a richly eclectic, unpigeonholeable artifact--kingdubby meets the rockers up-town, with funk and jazz and hip-hop and even kraut rock all showing up for the party.

What the Critics Say
Mezzanine unravels languidly in the Massive tradition, with hooks as much textural as they are rhythmic or melodic.... Massive Attack stretch their preferred canvas to new, almost lounge-friendly, shapes.... Sometimes it comes close to, although never attains, the dizzy heights of a masterpiece.

Customer Reviews

Seriously, give 100th Window another try, fans
WHOA. Did I read that somebody skips-over "Inertia Creeps (#4)??"
Wow. That's pretty crazy, given that "Inertia Creeps" is one of the dopest songs on Mezzanine. It's like being in a knock-down-drag-out fist-fight in slow motion. What's not to like about that?
AND people down-grading "Black Milk?" What are you guys thinking?

#7 "Man Next Door" is my least likeable, but overall this album is epic as far as 90's music goes. Well yeah, it's pretty epic overall.

And seriously, give 100th Window more of a try. Songs like "Future Proof" and "Special Cases" are vintage Massive Attack. Period.

A top-10 album
The first four tracks on Mezzanine are masterpieces, probably the apotheosis of Trip-Hop. Dark, dreamlike, beautiful, stunningly sculpted -- one senses the hundreds, even thousands of studio manhours that went into each song. The rest of the album is brilliant as well, though the "comedown" tracks #5 & #11 might be skipped on repeat listenings. Tracks #6-10 continue the greatness in different directions -- sometimes sly and funny, sometimes crunching rock. Each song has an arc, which takes multiple listenings to understand. This might be sounds repeated at the beginning that are layered upon, then layered upon again, until the whole things unwinds and you are left with the same sounds (the heavy thudding beat in "Angel," the looped feedback in "Dissolved Girl") in a new context. Songs unfold like dreams, with images and bits of narrative fading in and out. Be sure to listen to this on a good stereo; Mezzanine uses the entire audio spectrum, including some very deep bass. (E.g., at 1'30" into "Angel," you should be alarmed at how the stygian bass is getting even louder...right before the "door-ajar" car sound which is the tolling bell of doom.) This might be the most tightly controlled album I have heard. Brilliant stuff.

I had to warm up to it...
I have to admit I really hated most of the other songs, outside of Tear Drop and Angel, when I first listened in the car on a long road trip, but on the way back to my city, they got in. This is one of my favorite CD's ever. I have them on rotation on my iPod, on burned CD's in my car, on my work computer, my brother's xBox. You do have to be in a certain mood to thoroughly enjoy Mezzanine, but if you are you're gonna love it, not to mention is perfect for a late night with you special person, oh my goodness "Angel." This album is just about perfect.