Massive Attack - Mezzanine (1998)

The album

Massive Attack are a trip hop band based in Bristol. Mezzanine is their third album, and it's considered their masterpiece. This album has been mastered by the great mastering engineer Tim Young (Metropolis Mastering Studio).

The album opens with a track, Angel, that is in my opinion the best track of the album and maybe the best track in this genre. This track is characterized by a dark atmosphere; a guitar riff that is obsessively repeated from the beginning to the end; an ultra deep bass line; a sensual voice; a real drum and, overall, great macro dynamics, with the intensity of the track that raises gradually and reaches its climax almost at the end. A real master piece, the perfect trip hop track!!
The following tracks are almost at the same artistic level too.
Teardrop is a very famous song, and it's maybe the unique track in the album with a positive atmosphere, with Exchange. Elizabeth Fraser sweet voice melodies are merged in a steady deep sounding kick. The keyboard on the side and a synth guitar on the mid channel create a relaxed, peaceful atmosphere.
But with Inertia Creeps, the typical dark Massive Attack sound returns. Again a steady and obsessive bass line and distorted guitar riffs build up the solid sonic structure of the song. The sound is ultra warm and full of impact; the transients are strong but not excessive; the stereo image is wide but with a solid bass & kick impact from the center.
The remaining tracks continue with these standard. I have to mention overall  "Dissolved Girl", another masterpiece of this album. What makes this song so great are, again: the obsessive bass line, which is repeated from the beginning to the en; the distorted guitar that fits so well (and it's a rare event that a really distorted guitar is used in a trip hop track); overall, the beautiful voice of Sara Jay, an unknown singer from Sheffield who was a discovery of Massive Attack’s manager Marc Picken.

The sound

This is a really warm sounding album, with very deep bass frequencies, and very well balanced mid and high frequencies. A sound that reflects very well the dark atmosphere and melodies.
Mastering engineers will love this album for its warm sound. The audio mastering by Tim Young reveals all the deepness of the sounds, preserves the warmness of the atmosphere and the impact of the transients. The overall sound is always coherent between the different tracks, is very deep and dark, but not fatiguing. The strong bass frequencies don't muddy the sound, which remains always well defined and balanced.
In summary, this is a masterpiece trip hop album; it should be known not only by the lovers of trip hop genre, but by music lovers in general, because of its coherence, its powerful atmosphere, its hypnotizing bass lines and guitar riffs, and the beautiful male and female voices. Maybe the most important innovation of this album is the natural and nice blending between the ultra deep trip hop bass and the distorted guitars used in almost every track.