Massive Attack
Mezzanine

Imagine for a moment that you're at the beach. Dig a small hole in the sand. Now pour in some seawater. What happens? At first, nothing. Then slowly but surely, the water will begin to be absorbed by the sand until you can no longer distinguish the water from the sand. With this metaphor, I want to try to explain the effect I experienced when listening to this CD.

On the first listen, apart from "Teardrop" and "Man Next Door", these songs didn’t strike me much, the whole seemed rather "stagnant", I didn't exactly understand what I was listening to but it was certainly something I had never heard before. Then with subsequent listens, these sounds were absorbed, slowly but inexorably, becoming part of the deepest fibers of the soul. These sounds are dark, sometimes claustrophobic, unsettling in songs like "Risingson" and "Inertia Creeps". But there are also the crystalline voices of Elizabeth Fraser and Sara Jay to provide a moment of serenity in this profound distress and unease. And how could I not mention "Man Next Door". Theme: the noisy neighbor. Execution: excellent! A song that, for me, contends with "Angel", "Teardrop" and "Risingson" for the title of "best song on the album" but in this case it's an impossible task since every single song on the album is a little gem to discover.

A CD that has recently become part of my collection but is certainly one of the most intense. A record that improves with each listen. A true masterpiece!