Year Released: 1998
Genre: Trip Hop, Electronic, Dark Ambient, Post-Punk
Description:
Mezzanine is the third studio album by the English electronic music group Massive Attack, and it is widely considered their masterpiece. Released on April 20, 1998, it marked a significant stylistic departure from the soulful, hip-hop-influenced trip-hop of their previous work. Instead, Mezzanine is a much darker, more paranoid, and claustrophobic record, incorporating elements of post-punk, industrial music, and a foreboding, atmospheric sound. The iconic cover art of a black beetle on a stark white background perfectly represents the album's menacing and claustrophobic aesthetic.
The album's creation was fraught with creative tensions and in-fighting among the group's members, Robert "3D" Del Naja, Grant "Daddy G" Marshall, and Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles. These conflicts, particularly over the album's darker direction and the use of live instrumentation over samples, ultimately led to Vowles's departure from the band after the album's release.
Mezzanine is renowned for its use of guest vocalists, most notably the ethereal voice of Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins on the album's most famous song, "Teardrop." The song's distinct harpsichord loop was a point of contention within the band, as Vowles wanted Madonna to sing on it, while Del Naja and Marshall insisted on Fraser. The album also features the return of frequent collaborator Horace Andy, who lends his haunting voice to the tracks "Angel" and "Man Next Door." "Angel" is another standout track that gained widespread recognition through its use in countless films and TV shows, solidifying the album's place in popular culture. In 2018, to celebrate the album's 20th anniversary, Massive Attack became the first band to release an album encoded into DNA
