Massive Attack - 'mezzanine'

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Black Milk is the best track on Mezzanine - i like the whole album tho tho tended to skip Group 4 (good as it is).

to describe MA as 'dire and embarassing' makes no sense to me. Ronan's complaint seems to boil down to taking offence to them being labelled as dance music when you can't dance to it. if that's true then i agree it is stupid but you can hardly blame the band for this. one man's 90s is another man's heaven. one man's boring is another man's hypnotic/mesmeric/sublime/dreamnoize...

― Brigadier Rainham Steele, Mrs (blueski), Monday, 4 October 2004 11:57 (twenty-one years ago)

paulhw refers to this 'calculated' thing as bad. don't see why that should be. i like the meticulous nature of 100th Window in many places, and a few tracks ('Butterfly Caught', 'Special Cases', 'Antistar') are as good as anything on Mezzanine.

― Brigadier Rainham Steele, Mrs (blueski), Monday, 4 October 2004 12:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Ronan is rockist about dance music in an inverted way. Is he danceist? If you can't dance to it and it is called 'dance' for whatever etymological reason (IN THIS CASE BECAUSE IT HAS NO GUITARS OR SOMETHING AND MAYBE THEY DO SOME SCRATCHING AND THE BASS IS GOOD YAH WHAT WHAT YAH) then it's automatically no good. I had Blue Lines on the other afternoon and it's a fucking outrageously great record.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 4 October 2004 12:11 (twenty-one years ago)

"like to go to America when I get a VISA caaaard - cos gettin' a VISA card nowadays isn't hard?"

― Brigadier Rainham Steele, Mrs (blueski), Monday, 4 October 2004 12:12 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm still troubled by the whole 90s backlash among a few people lately tho. i don't know if it really is a kneejerk reaction based on trend-chasing or it really is felt that these are actually terrible records conceptually/musically/technically/lyrically etc. we're talking about - which is a view i cannot share, regardless of how unfashionable a lot of acts from the 90s may now seem.

― Brigadier Rainham Steele, Mrs (blueski), Monday, 4 October 2004 12:15 (twenty-one years ago)

nick otm re: the first 4 - possibly my favourite opening salvo on any album ever - and it's one of my favourite albums for those four tracks *alone*. there's still plenty of good stuff after that as well - the last couple of tracks (prior to the exchange reprise) are maybe a bit too blank and washed-out, so could have finished earlier maybe.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 4 October 2004 12:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I reckon the "Black Milk"/"Mezzanine"/"Group Four" succession is as strong as the first four tracks, if less pop. I love the thickness of some of those tracks, it's like floating down a river of treacle.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 4 October 2004 13:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember the second half of "Mezzanine" (song) being great, but can't recall the rest of the second half of the record at all.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 4 October 2004 14:00 (twenty-one years ago)

it's like floating down a river of treacle OTMFM!
One of those albums where the cover art captures EXACTLY the content.

― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Monday, 4 October 2004 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Of course "a river of treacle" describes a lot of bad trip hop pretty accurately too....

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 4 October 2004 14:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I have visions of black tar slowly dripping

― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Monday, 4 October 2004 14:10 (twenty-one years ago)

"Angel" is slow motion apocalypse. It's like the bomb first drops, then goes off, then has to fight its way through, indeed, tar or something similar.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 4 October 2004 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

It's the difference between being inside, and looking at a river of treacle.

― Jedmond (Jedmond), Monday, 4 October 2004 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

seven months pass...

ned otm concerning the opening song angel. but the rest of the album sounds as if it was made after the bomb exploded. the tension is gone and the music just plods along. even the liz fraser songs. i listened to it on saturday night and god was i disappointed.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Monday, 30 May 2005 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to really love it; now I just listen to "Angel," "Man Next Door" and the one that goes "toylike people make me boylike," which is Eno-worthy.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 30 May 2005 19:38 (twenty-one years ago)

it seemed so huge in the spring of 1998. so devastatingly dark and powerful. i can't believe it was the same album i listened to on saturday. man next door is just a sad sample song. i even wanted to shout give me back robert smith's wailing when i heard it.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Monday, 30 May 2005 19:52 (twenty-one years ago)

All this talk and no mention of Dissolved Girl! I did so much of my senior year photography thesis listening to that track on repeat.

These days I'm mildly addicted to Hymn of the Big Wheel, but I'll still happily listen to all of Blue Lines and Mezzanine. I bought 100W, listened to it a few times, and sold it to Easy Street... I just couldn't get into it. It fell really flat for me, and yeah- those Sinead lyrics were beyond dreadful. I played it in my friend's car once and spent most of the song apologizing for the lyrics.

― lyra (lyra), Monday, 30 May 2005 22:37 (twenty-one years ago)

"Teardrop" approaches being the best single Massive Attack ever released.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 13:48 (twenty-one years ago)

"exchange" is actually the 'mezzanine' song i go back to the most.

― rajeev (rajeev), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 13:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I think "Teardrop" probably is the best MA single ever, although I'm too young to remember any impact "Unfinished Sympathy" might've had.

― Nick H (Nick H), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

"Unfinished Sympathy" hit me like a sledgehammer when it came out and "Safe From Harm" was like another larger sledgehammer swooping in to hit my mom as she rushed over to cradle my prone, broken body. "Teardrop" is the molten lava that pours over our supine forms, imparting third-degree burns and an ungodly amount of charring.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Dan likes it HOT.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I love Mezzanine; I said that above. I love the first three Massive Attack albums apart from "Hymn of the Big Wheel", which I think is rubbish.

Teardrop is difficult to listen to, despite being brilliant. The BBC used it all over the place for years (still do), so it's a bit overexposed, for me. I like the second side of Mezzanine the best; again, it's probably overexposure to the songs on the first side. "Dissolved Girl" is amazing, particularly the bassline. In fact, that could go on that thread about songs that are great because of their basslines.

― KeefW (kmw), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

"Dissolved Girl" is amazing

ABSOLUTELY. I remember people were dogging this song left and right when the album came out and I really didn't get it because it's so claustrophobic and pleadingly awesome.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Dan likes it HOT

Or he's Anakin S., with more limbs.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

this is the best Massive Attack album by such a long way! I love the textures and this mood hanging over it all. Everyone otm re: 'Dissolved Girl', too.

― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Amazingly, I don't think I can find a thread about Mo'Wax records... Am I missing something?

― KeefW (kmw), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm sure there's one, hold on.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I must say, the impact of "Angel," "Risingson," "Teadrop," and "Inertia Creeps" is Maxinquaye-era Tricky's only competition in the menacing trip-hop sweepstakes.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

bizarrely, no! not a C/D S&D one anyway.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Amazing eh? I'd write one... If I could be arsed! Which I can't!

― KeefW (kmw), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

their best album y/n

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 5 April 2007 13:45 (nineteen years ago)

I like the title track.

― the next grozart, Thursday, 5 April 2007 13:49 (nineteen years ago)

n, but really fucking awesome.

― HI DERE, Thursday, 5 April 2007 13:54 (nineteen years ago)

i like the underworld mix of rising son

― and what, Thursday, 5 April 2007 14:02 (nineteen years ago)

and the rjd2 mix of butterfly caught

― and what, Thursday, 5 April 2007 14:02 (nineteen years ago)

Still great.

― chap, Thursday, 5 April 2007 14:06 (nineteen years ago)

i like the underworld mix of rising son

yes! but might be even better without 3D's voice at all.

― blueski, Thursday, 5 April 2007 14:17 (nineteen years ago)

God, so many awesome songs on this album. At this point, it might be nostalgia that's making me rank Blue Lines higher.

― HI DERE, Thursday, 5 April 2007 14:20 (nineteen years ago)

I still like it better than Blue Lines.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 5 April 2007 14:49 (nineteen years ago)

best album art by a mile.

can't decide about the musics, though.

― The Macallan 18 Year, Thursday, 5 April 2007 17:08 (nineteen years ago)

everyone knows their best album is the soundtrack to danny the dog aka unleashed

― rps, Thursday, 5 April 2007 17:42 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

holy shit but 'angel' is so good

― mookieproof, Monday, 30 July 2007 22:40 (eighteen years ago)

Best use of trip-hop in a prime-time crime drama. : )

I love mezzanine mostly because I first heard it on a low-fi, busted-out stereo system in a friend's econoline van. It was literally stuck in his cassette deck. I really liked that mix of it.

When I bought it on CD, it seemed too big and glossy, so I sold it. Then I bought it again because the songs are great.

― kingkongvsgodzilla, Monday, 30 July 2007 23:06 (eighteen years ago)

Hoos might now like Blue Lines better.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 30 July 2007 23:46 (eighteen years ago)

funnily enough, Blues Lines has nearly always been my *LEAST* favorite of the four albums...

― stephen, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 00:16 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah same here. 'Mezzanine' totally owns the rest of their output. Great grea album.

― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 08:05 (eighteen years ago)

Always found Mezzanine's desperate reach for "darkness" hilarious. 'Risingson' is classic, but it doesn't count.

All Mezzanine fans dislike Blue Lines.

― Matthew H, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 11:29 (eighteen years ago)

This isn't true; I love both but love Blue Lines more.

― HI DERE, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 11:37 (eighteen years ago)

Damn.

― Matthew H, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 11:44 (eighteen years ago)

Skipping 110 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I'd go just to hear this (if they're still doing it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGCk-_cz00U

― piscesx, Monday, 1 June 2026 00:09 (one week ago)

doesn't seem like they're still doing that one

― ufo, Monday, 1 June 2026 00:17 (one week ago)

is "here" Australia ufo? I was surprised at the big venues too

there's no info on the touring party - I see that Liz Frazer has been guesting at recent shows, I guess I am a little intrigued by that but seeing her sing in a vibe-free room in Homebush isn't really the dream

― Cod:Shellfish (emsworth), Monday, 1 June 2026 00:19 (one week ago)

last time they did two shows to 6k a night on the opera house steps, 50 steps from buses and 8 mins harbour stroll from trains, or an amble from dinner or drinks or a picnic

I really doubt that 21,000 ppl are going to want to pay $180 each to go to a sport shed in the middle of nowhere, sixteen years later

― uploading this content requires perseveration (sic), Monday, 1 June 2026 01:20 (one week ago)

(sixteen years of no or low-profile activity later, I mean)

― uploading this content requires perseveration (sic), Monday, 1 June 2026 01:21 (one week ago)

yeah, australia

liz fraser and horace andy have been consistently part of the touring lineup since 2019 when they did the mezzanine anniversary tour, i expect they'll both be there again since they're part of the recent shows too

― ufo, Monday, 1 June 2026 01:23 (one week ago)

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