Review of Massive Attack: Mezzanine

Please read and listen to Scott Coates pick  Massive Attack: Mezzanine  before reading and listening to our reviews below.

Quick Summary: 

  • Would we recommend?
  • Influence us and our tastes?
  • Overall
3.4

Review of Massive Attack: Mezzanine

This April 2019 selection by Sonic Collective member Scott Coates was this album made most famous for the amount of movie and TV soundtracks you hear their songs a part of. We all had to admit that the quality of the production for this electronic, ambient masterpiece stirs creative visualizations within all the tracks. It is literally hard to listen to this album and not picture a movie or TV scene. Though our scores below may not look spectacular this definitely deserves the respect it has garnered over these many years. Massive Attack is actually touring again and playing this album in its entirety and adding new mixes and visuals. Listen to this review and learn all these points below and more:

  • What Amy Winehouse and Madonna have in common with Massive Attack.
  • What two artists from the late 80s and early 90s Darren thought mashed together sounded similar to Massive Attack on this album.
  • What Massive Attack’s relationship at the time of creating this album had to do with the final output.

Join us and listen to our thoughts and tidbits of information on this classic electronic album. Does it stand the test of time? When would you listen to this? Hear what we think and let us know your thoughts.

The Sonic Collective

Individual Review Scoring

Scott Coates
Overall opinion: 3.5
Would I recommend?: 4
Influenced my tastes: 3.5

Darren Scott
Overall opinion: 3.5
Would I recommend?: 3.5
Influenced my tastes: 3

Alain DuPuis:
Overall opinion: 3.5
Would I recommend?: 3.5
Influenced my tastes: 2

Scott Gregory:
Overall opinion: N/A
Would I recommend?: N/A
Influenced my tastes: N/A

Massive Attack: Mezzanine


Massive Attack: Mezzanine
Scott Coates, April 2019

I’ve been listening to a fair bit of funky, jazzy, electronica lately: The Brand New Heavies, Chemical Brothers, Morcheeba and a few others. While thinking of similar bands, Massive Attack came to mind. I’d listened to their Blue Lines release a few times but hadn’t listened to this month’s pick, Mezzanine. Upon giving it a listen I realized there are a lot of tracks that I’ve heard before, namely Angel which was on the Snatch soundtrack and Safe from Harm which was featured on The Insider soundtrack. Some of my mixed chillout albums also have Massive Attack tracks on them. 

Mezzanine is the third studio album by the Bristol, England, released on 20 April 1998. It took a long time to make and band members pushed themselves in various new directions, often finishing songs, then tearing them apart and almost starting again from scratch. It features many samples, ranging from Isaac Hayes to The Cure. In 2003, the album was ranked number 412 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It faired very well in the UK, entering the charts at #1 but didn’t do as well in North America, peaking at 51 in Canada and 60 in the US.

This is a potentially dark exploration, but one I’m looking forward to and I hope you enjoy doing so as well. Settle in to a relaxing spot and give it a roll.

Links
Mezzanine on Spotify

Mezzanine on Apple Music

Mezzanine Wikipedia page

Massive Attack website

Massive Attack fan page