Massive Attack - 'mezzanine'

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I once took care of a friend's parrot, and it seemed to love this album. It bounced up and down and seemed really happy whenever I put it on. (On the other hand, it hated Stevie Wonder.)

The parrot's dead now, and I haven't played the album in years.

― Marcel Post (Marcel Post), Sunday, 3 October 2004 02:38 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah it is Leee, June '98. I don't much care for Liz Fraser myself.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 3 October 2004 10:05 (nineteen years ago) link

Inspired by this thread I just gave '100W' a spin. Works probably better as mixtape breeder.
And just how awful are those Sinead lyrics?

― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Sunday, 3 October 2004 10:26 (nineteen years ago) link

I love Mezzanine; for me, it's the best Massive Attack record. That said, I didn't like it for about two years after it came out; I wasn't in the mood for it at all.

I love the first two as well. 100th Window is OK, but haven't listened to it much. Mezzanine may be darker, but I don't quite get the goth thing! It surprises me that the general feeling is that it's not up to scratch. I tend to think the first few tracks are the worst (overexposure most likely).

― Keith Watson (kmw), Sunday, 3 October 2004 10:28 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah, I think it's overexposure that killed it. Bjork, too; we'd be so much more excited about her records if we didn't hear about them all the time. If Mezzanine had been kept quiet, it'd be that much more interesting to hear, without too much overbearing cultural context(i.e. 'man, this is sooo 1998!')

― derrick (derrick), Sunday, 3 October 2004 19:26 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh, so you're all British. That's the problem.

― Sansai, Monday, 4 October 2004 00:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Tim OTM re; first track on 100th Window, Wooden OTM re; "Better Things" (Although I think the rest of Protection is good, bar the thing at the end (wtf is the story behind that anyway?).

The first four tracks of Mezzanine are fucking incredible, really atmospheric and powerful and dynamic too, but after that I switch off completely.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 4 October 2004 11:49 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

"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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

I have visions of black tar slowly dripping

― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Monday, 4 October 2004 14:10 (nineteen years ago) link

"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 (nineteen years ago) link

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

― Jedmond (Jedmond), Monday, 4 October 2004 16:02 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 13:48 (eighteen years ago) link

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

― rajeev (rajeev), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 13:55 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

"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 (eighteen years ago) link

Dan likes it HOT.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:16 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

"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 (eighteen years ago) link

Dan likes it HOT

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

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:43 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 18:57 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 19:01 (eighteen years ago) link

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

― KeefW (kmw), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 19:02 (eighteen years ago) link

one year passes...

their best album y/n

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

I like the title track.

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

n, but really fucking awesome.

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

i like the underworld mix of rising son

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

and the rjd2 mix of butterfly caught

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

Still great.

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

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 (seventeen years ago) link

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 (seventeen years ago) link

I still like it better than Blue Lines.

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

best album art by a mile.

can't decide about the musics, though.

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

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

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

three months pass...

holy shit but 'angel' is so good

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

Skipping 77 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

This was as good as something of this sort could be, imo. They sounded great, and despite the facile Banksyness of the visual/textual content it had a lot of poignant moments, like when Liz sang "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" against a backdrop of war footage - I choked up. The Bauhaus cover was fabulous and exhilarating.

― Turangalila, Sunday, 22 September 2019 04:41 (four years ago) link

Wait Liz is singing Risingson?

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 22 September 2019 05:15 (four years ago) link

Nope.

― Turangalila, Sunday, 22 September 2019 05:30 (four years ago) link

Yeah just checked the setlist, she does a Pete Seeger cover then. It’s fucking awesome they’re doing covers of some of the samples within the album.

Is Bela Lugosi’s Dead sampled in Mezzanine?

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 22 September 2019 05:45 (four years ago) link

despite the facile Banksyness of the visual/textual content

Well, Banksy IS in the band

― Vinnie, Sunday, 22 September 2019 07:53 (four years ago) link

This was super good

― brigadier pudding (DJP), Sunday, 22 September 2019 15:01 (four years ago) link

feel like I short-changed Horace Andy who probably never needs the shout out, but deserves it

― mh, Monday, 23 September 2019 18:50 (four years ago) link

I... am not really sure whether I liked this or not. something wasn't totally clicking, and I'm not sure what -- it wasn't the visual (heavy-handed but I was more or less expecting it to be), I don't think it was the arrangements (although it was a bit disappointing dissolved girl was playback, and I... wouldn't necessarily have put "levels" on the setlist). the energy felt 75% maybe?

― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Saturday, 28 September 2019 03:53 (four years ago) link

really what is the deal with the "levels" bit? does it make any sense at all in the context of the show

― ufo, Saturday, 28 September 2019 04:13 (four years ago) link

Katherine yeah, it didn't really hit for me either.

― lost IDM classics (lukas), Saturday, 28 September 2019 04:17 (four years ago) link

xp I assumed it was some sort of commentary on tim bergling's death, maybe?

― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Saturday, 28 September 2019 04:18 (four years ago) link

Maybe just hard to live up to the imaginative world that the original audio conjures

― calstars, Saturday, 28 September 2019 04:25 (four years ago) link

yeah

― mookieproof, Saturday, 28 September 2019 04:37 (four years ago) link

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