Massive Attack are really a group who need no introduction. The founders of the genre "Trip Hop", they revolutionised music with the album "Blues Lines" and made an even better record with "Mezzanine". Although there is only one original group member in this album, it has some extremely good songs. The mood of it is rather dark and very trippy and druggy. This album has a lot of depth and keeps the listener interested, no matter what the focus of the song is. For me personally, this record is infinitely better than "Blue Lines". I have not heard "Mezzanine" so I will not try to compare it with that record. Instead, I'll just look at the album the way it is and review it in that way.
Future Proof - The song starts out with some beeps and effects and then a guitar melody comes in. The beeps evolve into an actual meoldy and the way they do it is awesome. Then the amazing vocals come in with some bass. The drums in this song are also really cool. The lyrics are hard to understand, but in a really cool way. Towards the end, there is some guitar soloing type stuff in the background, which is very cool. The vocals are simply amazing, they are trippy, dark and mysterious.
4/5
What Your Soul Sings - The single best song on the album. The songs starts with some noise and a guitar riff. Then the song drops back to just drums and bass. The bassline is awesome. Then Sinead O Connor's vocals come in, which are simply jaw dropping. The drums have some nice rimshots. The lyrics are about just being yourself and not trying to please others all the time. A really beatiful song, the vocals are awesome and the music just sort of slides and fits behind the vocals. Amazing
5/5
Everywhen - The song starts up much like the other two. A cool part of it is this short guitar with a wah pedal sound. The vocals are also awesome sounding very trippy. The best part of the song is when he starts singing "eeeeevvverrrryyyythiiinnnggg" it just sounds amazing. The whole song has an excellent mood and the music in it fits so perfectly. One of the album's best tracks, easily.
5/5
Special Cases - This song sounds a lot like "Everywhen" except now Sinead is on vocals. So it's Sinead singing a druggy, trippy song that isn't very uplifting. This is the kind of music that reminds me of the film "Arlington Road". The melodies in this song are great and the only real problem is that it sounds much like the earlier tracks.
4/5
Butterfly Caught - Awesome, Awesome song. The drum beat is amazing and then when you hear the synth melodies, you are just about in heaven. The vocals are awesome as well and the song has this amazing mood and feeling. It's very trippy and druggy. The melodies in are just awesome. It's got good lyrics too, although they are most often hard to understand. The worst thing about the song is the abrupt false ending. At the end, there are some really nice violin melodies which add very much to the mood and feeling of the song. All in all, a wonderful song.
4/5
Prayer For England - An extremely political song, which, like the name suggests is a prayer. It starts off with the lightly distorted bassline. Then Sinead's vocals come in and starts singing the touching lyrics of the song. The best lyric of the song is "Let not another child be slain". The song is amazing and serves it's purpose well. This shows the political side of Massive Attack (their band name is also a politically derived name). The overall music in the song is very, very good. The drums and bass just fit into everything so well.
4.8/5
Smalltime Shot Away - A very cool song, although the same sound does get repeteive. It's a lot like "Future Proof", cool effects, trippy vocals and in in all a really nice sound. There are some really cool synths in this song as well, it's very good, but not up with the album's best. Excellent drumming too.
3.7/5
Name Taken - Name Taken is a lot like "Everywhen". The keyboards in it are excellent and the drumming fits in so well with the song. The vocals, as usual are just amazing and the effects around the songs are really cool. The song is really cool, but it does get a bit repetitive. All in all though, it's very great.
3.7/5
Antistar - My personal favourite song on this record. The guitar in it is just great and the trippy vocals are quite haunting. The whole song has this amazing feel to it which is really strange but also really cool. In some parts, the song sounds almost Arabian, very, very cool. The song is really a masterpiece and the only real thing wrong with it is that it goes on for quite a while. The end is a bit boring, but the song overall is just amazing.
5/5
Well, there we have it. This record is probably not up with Massive Attack's best work (although I think it is far better than "Blue Lines"), but it is a very good album nonetheless. This album is a tied best album of 2003 for me. It's one of those albums that won't change or revolutionise music, but its' very very good. This album is just an excellent album.
