Massive Attack
Teardrop

THE REVIEW

You listen to it and become paranoid, that voice so sensual and childlike enters your ears and imprints on your mind, becoming so real it disturbs. Accompanying it is a rather rarefied, slow, and fascinating rhythmic base.

This was "Teardrop," one of the most beautiful tracks by the Bristol group, accompanied at the time by a masterpiece video depicting a fetus about to sing the melody in the mother's womb. Not just trip hop, not music to suffer, but music that suffers and imbues a disturbing maternal aura while listening to it: rarefied, simple, with an effective yet alternative chorus. However, the remixes that accompany the track in the single version are much inferior to the original: the "Scream team remix" is well done, but it achieves almost nothing of the impressive vocal structure, drowning everything in a reggae sauce. Then there are two remixes by Mad Professor, the most beautiful of which is the "Mazaruni Instrumental," with fleeting rhythms and fan-shaped openings of sounds and colors with the original's sighs barely perceptible in the background, while the "Mazaruni Vocal Mix" is still well done, but dangerously turns towards reggae, slowing the rhythms and rambling into a piece that seems like a struggling lullaby.

To conclude, an exquisite b-side "Euro Zero Zero," featuring the inevitable Horace Andy, who delivers a trip hop performance that is nothing short of sublime for a song that did not deserve to be relegated to a b-side.

In conclusion, an excellent single, although it would be more useful to buy a copy of "Mezzanine." Absolutely.