Music Review

Mezzanine (1998)

Massive Attack
Reviewed by Steven Mirkin | May 15, 1998
EW's GRADE
A-

Details Lead Performance: Massive Attack; Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap

Mezzanine is Victorian trip-hop — hulking, clangorous, and dank. Vocalist Horace Andy, Cocteau Twin Liz Fraser, and rappers 3-D and Daddy G alternate between alienated lilts and hoarse threats as wheezing synthesizers, lumbering bass lines, and jagged guitars grind against each other in slow motion. It's industrial music for the turn of the century — the 19th century. A-

Originally posted May 15, 1998 Published in issue #432 May 15, 1998 Order article reprints