Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Critic Score
Based on 10 reviews
1998 Ratings: #7 / 126
User Score
1998 Ratings: #10
Liked by 484 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Drowned in Sound
The production is flawless and every beat, every lyric is delivered so smoothly you’d think you were imagining these sounds from the darkest regions of your damaged mind.
100
AllMusic

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.

93
Pitchfork

On Mezzanine, Massive Attack tried to escape trip-hop. They nearly tore themselves apart and made its defining document instead.

91
Entertainment Weekly

Mezzanine is Victorian trip-hop — hulking, clangorous, and dank ... It’s industrial music for the turn of the century — the 19th century.

80
NME
The title alludes to dislocation, a place which is neither one thing or another, and each of the album's ten tracks (one of which, the instrumental 'Exchange', is reprised) more or less ponder the psychic implications thereof.
70
Rolling Stone

Mezzanine remains a splendidly mercurial record, packed with amazing sounds and mesmeric grooves — a trip, in fact.

70
The Sydney Morning Herald

If you come expecting the new you will leave disappointed ... This is insted a case of subtle shifts in the form ... which are enough for a very good (but not classic) album.

60
Q Magazine

With all but a brace of the tracks clocking in at well over five minutes, Mezzanine unravels languidly in the Massive tradition, with hooks as much textural as they are rhythmic or melodic.

Knxckebeatz
89

Ummmm are yall sure this came out in 98? Not like....tomorrow?

Edit: sounds like background music for shooting heroin

barcooper
95

Man I fucking hate bugs, with the exception of the cutie on the album cover.

Mezzanine is probably my favorite trip hop album for a long time now, if you can even call this thing trip hop. It's probably one of the darkest electronic albums of the 90's, and it pushed the boundaries of what trip hop can be. But for some reason I never wrote a proper review for this project, so it's about damn time.

On this album the band consisting of Robert Del Naja, Adrian Thaws, Andrew Vowles and Grant ... read more

UltimateLifeFrm
100

Album Swap with @NICK. Thanks for recommending this one as I've been wanting to hear this for ages.

Gorgeous, sinister and artistic all at once!

Mezzanine was the 3rd album from English group Massive Atrack, released in April 1998.
For this album, they were intending on a darker aesthetic in comparison to the direction of their 2 predecessors (Blue Lines and Protection).
Production was stressful as it led to disagreements that nearly led to the group splitting up. They spent months working on ... read more

TheAqbert
100

Mezzanine shows growth in production and mixing, the vibe of this record feels dark, paranoic and intimate which still sounds fresh and sharp just as the day it was released.

charlie_cringe
90

so ahead of its time, its insane this came out in 98.

some of the tightest and smoothest trip hop ever created.

Vivitine
97

The fact that this came out in 98 is genuinely surprising. It sounds like a record you could hear that came out yesterday. The sound here is incredible, menacing and dark. It's so smooth, the lyrics sound a bit spooky over these cool beats and when the sound pumps up it really does explode. Every track on here is fire, save maybe for Man Next Door, that one just doesnt hit as hard as all the other ones. But god damn this is a masterpiece, it's shocking that it took me this long to appreciate ... read more

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Track List

1Angel
6:19
97
2Risingson
4:58
94
3Teardrop
5:30
97
4Inertia Creeps
5:57
94
5Exchange
4:11
86
6Dissolved Girl
6:06
94
7Man Next Door
5:56
88
8Black Milk
6:21
91
9Mezzanine
5:56
90
10Group Four
8:12
91
11(Exchange)
4:10
85
Total Length: 1 hour, 3 minutes

Year End Lists

#5/Paste
#6/SPIN
#7/Pitchfork

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