It’s been a busy old month at Brown Towers (yeah, I’m not sure about the name either), so I’ve not had chance to collect my thoughts and scribble a blog post. Thank God for “Album of the month” then.
After extolling the virtues of Carole King’s “Tapestry” last month, I wanted to try and be a little more modern. That was released in 1971, this month’s album was released in 1998. Which I admit is still pushing 30 years ago.
But I’d argue it hasn’t particularly dated and could have been released last week. Or maybe age is withering my hearing?
The third album from Bristol trip-hoppers Massive Attack, “Mezzanine” isn’t what you’d call laugh a minute. Dread crossed with creeping paranoia is probably the general vibe. Yet it’s also weirdly uplifting. Yeah, I know. Odd.
It was such a departure from the soulful sounds of their previous two albums that founding member Andrew “Mushroom” Vowles left at the end of the recording, as he wasn’t a fan of the new direction. But I and millions of others definitely were.
The album reached number 1 in the UK, Australia, Iceland, Ireland and New Zealand, and spawned the singles “Risingson”, “Teardrop”, “Angel” and “Inertia Creeps”.
With vocals by ex-Cocteau Twins vocalist Liz Fraser, “Teardrop” was the hit from the album and is a thing of glorious beauty. Based on a simple harpsichord riff, it’s a multi-layered love tragedy. Indeed, Fraser wrote the lyrics during the period when her boyfriend of the time – singer Jeff Buckley – had gone missing, and was later found to have drowned.
Yeah, I’m not making it sound very enticing am I. Trust me, it’s fabulous. Links courtesy of the nice people at YouTube.
- Angel (6:18)
- Risingson (4:58)
- Teardrop (5:29)
- Inertia Creeps (5:56)
- Exchange (4:11)
- Dissolved Girl (6:07)
- Man Next Door (5:55)
- Black Milk (6:20)
- Mezzanine (5:54)
- Group Four (8:13)
- (Exchange) (4:08)