BETWEEN STOREYS

The dictionary defines the word mezzanine as 'a low storey between two others in a building, typically between the ground and first floors.' Massive Attack’s third album, Mezzanine, was released in April 1998 and captures some of the edgy uncertainty of being caught between epochs. Twentieth century ground lies somewhere below, shrouded in disappointment and photochemical smog. The new millennium beckons from above, but it’s dark there. Claustrophobic and threatening.

So it is with Mezzanine, an album with roots in the fag end of the 20th C and tugging at the guy ropes of the trip-hop movement Massive Attack themselves helped create. Underpinned by echoing dub textures and propelled by the skittering rhythms of the mid-to-late 90s club scene, this is a sullen, sometimes menacing album that still manages to be deeply (and darkly) seductive.

The sound stage is huge; a shadowy cinematic vastness that arrives as the curtain rises on the unsettling 'Angel'. Guitars slash across a stormy sky while guest vocalist Horace Andy’s voice floats on purple thunderclouds. It is an arresting beginning that continues to build the intensity throughout an extraordinary run of four tracks.

Alien seagulls usher in 'Risingson', almost an industrial/trip-hop hybrid; the spoken quote from a sixties folk song sounding ominous rather than uplifting. But there is lift, much of it coming from the guest vocals of ethereal singer Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins). Her appearance on 'Tear Drop' is sublime, inviting us to embrace this strange dystopian world rather than flee. The opening salvo finishes with 'Inertia Creeps', featuring the work of Massive Attack trio Andrew Vowles, Grant Marshall, and Robert Del Nanja. As songs about sex go, this is not one to inspire joyous coupling. Exploring how intimacy dies as a relationship fails, it is intense, sad, and more than a little depressing.

Those opening four tracks were all released as singles, with 'Tear Drop' performing the best in the charts. But there is much to enjoy in the rest of the album too. In fact, the very next track, 'Exchange', has some terrific analogue synth lines courtesy of electronic music pioneer Mort Garsen. Its languid pace and drugged-out electronica vibe provides some welcome breathing space.

Other highlights are provided by the return of the guest vocalists; Horace Andy on 'Man Next Door' (also containing a sample of The Cure) and Elizabeth Fraser on 'Black Milk'. The former relates the experience of hearing domestic violence from a neighbour’s apartment and is a lament delivered delicately yet powerfully by Andy. 'Black Milk' has a mid-tempo groove and an abstract, disturbing Fraser lyric, but as with so much of her music, it is the soaring voice that holds our focus like a wavering yet beguiling beacon.

Mezzanine topped the album charts in Australia, the UK, and several other countries. Many consider it the pinnacle of Massive Attack’s creativity. This is a choice album to sample Bristol’s finest; the sound is exceptional and the intensity electric. The come-down feel will pull some into its dark web while the moments that soar seem to show how even in melancholy and despair, hope rises and light enters. We might not have elevated ourselves to the next level, but we’ve left the ground floor.

© Bruce Jenkins—January 2023