Mezzanine creeps, moving up slowly (Mezzanine: Limited Edition - Massive Attack)

Member Name: mo79

Product:	Mezzanine: Limited Edition - Massive Attack
Date:	22/07/00 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A number of gems are on this album, and most of them are in succession at the beginning

Disadvantages: The other songs are alright, but with the superb quality of the other songs, these just look dry compared to the aforementioned epics; and both 'Exchange''s are almost pointless

Unless you were living under a rock in '98, you'll undoubtedly have heard atleast a little something from Massive Attack's 'Mezzanine' album, one of the most popular of that year. Chances are even if you haven't, you might have heard quite a few tunes unconsciously as they were used on many adverts, and still are.
I'm not a huge MA follower, and this indeed is the only album of theirs that I own; just a spur of the moment buy, and not one that I regret much.
The album opens with the epic 'Angel' which has featured on a host of ads, it's really sweeping and sleek, and dark and moody. You get washed away and smothered in this track, it's really ace. After, we get treated to the disorientated trip-hop of the classic 'Risingson', which in turn leads on to two more classics; the surreal soothingness of 'Teardrop' and the far eastern darkness of 'Inertia Creeps'.
Elsewhere though it seems that the smooth stream of classics stop. 'Exchange' (and 'Exchange') are quite good, but nothing more than fillers, and probably were meant to be, to increase the album's length. 'Disolved Girl' and 'Black Milk' are good, but compared to the gems on the first half of the album, I find that these sound really dry in comparison, atleast 'Man Next Door' tries very hard to compete, and 'Group Four'; while the title track 'Mezzanine' is just 'alright'.
It's not a bad album at all, but it's hard to want to listen to all of it. If you buy it, like me you'll just skip past all the average tracks just to hear the gems. Not a great album overall, but half of it is the best. Undoubtedly one of the finest albums of the past few years from Bristol's finest trip-hoppers.

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