![]() ![]() 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. 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." Robert Christgau of The Village Voice gave the album a two-star honorable mention rating and selected "Risingson" and "Man Next Door" as highlights. The album received significant critical acclaim, which praised the collective's new sound. ![]() However, it failed to share the same success in North America, peaking at number 60 on the Billboard 200 and number 51 on the Canadian Albums Chart. Mezzanine entered the UK Albums Chart at number one, and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 4 September 1998 and then double platinum on 22 July 2013. ‹ The template Album ratings is being considered for merging. › Professional ratings Review scores Later digital editions of Mezzanine have retained the original song, with Mann being added to the songwriting credits. The song has subsequently appeared as "Black Melt" on later releases and at live performances, with the sample removed. 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". 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. 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. The album's textured and deep tone relies heavily on abstract and ambient sounds, heavy emphasis on bass, and influences from alternative rock. 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. Mezzanine has been described as a trip hop and electronica album with moods of "dark claustrophobia" and melancholy. The cover art depicts a black stag beetle on a white background, photographed by Nick Knight at the Natural History Museum in London. ![]() – Neil Davidge in an interview with Sound on Sound. Sometimes I'd be working on perhaps four different tracks in one day, which was a pretty messy way to work. So I'd be in the studio working with one of the members and someone else would come in, then the person I had been working with would leave and I'd have to change the track I was working on because they didn't want to work on that track, they wanted to work on something different. Mezzanine was a pretty sketchy album in terms of the way we worked, because the band, as reported a lot at that time, were not getting on. The album's working title was Damaged Goods, which was the name of Gang of Four's 1978 debut single. 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. 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 them up, panicking, then starting again." 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 the track was subsequently included on the Japanese version of Mezzanine. The sessions continued with Vowles and Marshall working on bass and drum loops, while Del Naja continued to produce demos. Grant Marshall supported this direction as he wanted to depart from the " urban soul" of their previous album, Protection, but Vowles was sceptical. 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. 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. 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. ![]()
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