Mezzanine (album)

Mezzanine was conceptualized by lead Massive Attack member Robert Del Naja in 1997, who wanted to focus on exploring a darker audiovisual aesthetic with distinct influences. The production of the album was a stressful process; with tensions arising, it led to disagreements that almost split the group, including discouragement from Andrew Vowles. As a demonstration of the project's sound, Del Naja initially produced instrumental demos sampling songs by British post-punk bands such as Wire and Gang of Four, who had been familiar to him as artists he had enjoyed as a teenager. Grant Marshall supported this direction as he wanted to depart from the "urban soul" of their previous album, Protection, but Vowles was sceptical.[4]

The sessions continued with Vowles and Marshall working on bass and drum loops, while Del Naja continued to produce demos. The album was originally set to be released in December 1997, but was delayed by four months, with Del Naja spending most of the time in the studio "making tracks, tearing them apart, fucking [sic] them up, panicking, then starting again."[5] Before the album's release, the group released "Superpredators", a non-album song extensively sampling Siouxsie and the Banshees' song "Metal Postcard", for the soundtrack to the 1997 film The Jackal;[6] the track was subsequently included on the Japanese version of Mezzanine.[7]

The album marked the later parting of Vowles due to creative conflicts, while reggae artist and Massive Attack collaborator Horace Andy contributed to the album on multiple songs.[8] The album's working title was Damaged Goods, which was the name of Gang of Four's 1978 debut single.[4]

The cover art depicts a black stag beetle on a white background, photographed by Nick Knight at the Natural History Museum in London.[10]

Mezzanine has been described as a trip hop[11] and electronica album[1] with moods of "dark claustrophobia" and melancholy.[2] Musically, the album is a major departure from the jazzy and laidback sound of the first two albums, Blue Lines and Protection, invoking the dark undercurrents which had previously only been vaguely present in the group's music. The album's textured and deep tone relies heavily on abstract and ambient sounds, heavy emphasis on bass, and influences from alternative rock.

Similar to their previous albums, several songs use one or more samples, which range from artists typically sampled in trip hop such as Isaac Hayes and various drum breaks, to bands like the Cure and the Velvet Underground. In particular, "Inertia Creeps" samples Turkish çiftetelli music which Del Naja recorded after partying in Istanbul, with his recorded tape subsequently becoming the rhythmic base for the song.[12] In 1998, Manfred Mann sued Massive Attack for unauthorised use of a sample of the song "Tribute" from Manfred Mann's Earth Band's eponymous 1972 album, used on "Black Milk".[13] The song has subsequently appeared as "Black Melt" on later releases and at live performances, with the sample removed. Later digital editions of Mezzanine have retained the original song, with Mann being added to the songwriting credits.[14][15]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[16]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[11]
The Guardian	[17]
Los Angeles Times	[18]
Muzik	10/10[19]
NME	8/10[20]
Pitchfork	9.3/10[21]
Rolling Stone	[22]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[23]
Uncut	[24]

Mezzanine entered the UK Albums Chart at number one,[25] and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 4 September 1998 and then double platinum on 22 July 2013.[26] However, it failed to share the same success in North America, peaking at number 60 on the Billboard 200[27] and number 51 on the Canadian Albums Chart.[28]

The album received significant critical acclaim, which praised the collective's new sound. Rolling Stone's Barney Hoskyns, although praising the album, pointed to its flaws: "Sometimes rhythm and texture are explored at the expense of memorable tunes, and the absence of the bizarre Tricky [...] only highlights the flat, monotonous rapping of the group's 3-D."[22] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice gave the album a two-star honorable mention rating and selected "Risingson" and "Man Next Door" as highlights.[29]

John Bush of AllMusic also had positive words for the album's song "Inertia Creeps", saying it "could well be the highlight, another feature for just the core threesome. With eerie atmospherics, fuzz-tone guitars, and a wealth of effects, the song could well be the best production from the best team of producers the electronic world had ever seen."[16]

Years after the album was released, it was placed on several best-of lists in the UK and the United States. In 2000, Q magazine placed Mezzanine at number 15 on its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2013, it was placed at 215 on NME's list of the 500 Greatest Albums.[1] In 2003, the album was ranked number 412 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums,[30] and while it was not included in the 2012 update of the list, it reentered the 2020 update ranked at number 383.[31]

As of February 2010, the album had sold 560,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[32]

By July 1998, the album is reported to have sold 1.3 million copies worldwide.[33]

By late September 1998, the album was reported to have sold 170,000 copies in the US since its release in April. it is also said that Protection and Blue Lines have sold 140,000 copies each in the US.[34]

By April 2000, it is reported to have sold 2.5 million copies worldwide.[35]

On the 20th anniversary of Mezzanine's release, the record was encoded into synthetic DNA—a first for an album. The project was in collaboration with TurboBeads Labs in Switzerland; the digital audio of the album was stored in the form of genetic information. The audio was then compressed using Opus, coded in DNA molecules—with 920,000 short DNA strands containing all the data—and then poured into 5,000 tiny glass beads.[36]

The album was remastered and reissued for its 20th anniversary. The two-CD anniversary edition was released on 23 August 2019, and comes with a bonus disc of previously unreleased dub mixes by the Mad Professor, which were originally intended to be released on a Mezzanine remix album. A triple-LP vinyl version was also slated to be released; initially delayed from its proposed release date, the 3LP version was eventually canceled altogether.[37]

In lieu of the vinyl reissue, the Mad Professor remixes were released as a pink-coloured 12-inch vinyl single entitled Massive Attack v Mad Professor Part II (Mezzanine Remix Tapes '98) on 20 September 2019.[38]

The Mad Professor remixes include "Metal Banshee" (an unreleased dub version of "Superpredators", which was a reworked cover of "Metal Postcard" originally by Siouxsie and the Banshees), and "Wire", a track recorded for the soundtrack to the film Welcome to Sarajevo.[39][40]

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Mezzanine.[42]

• List of UK Albums Chart number ones of the 1990s
• List of European number-one hits of 1998
• List of number-one albums in Australia during the 1990s