Mezzanine by Massive Attack

Mezzanine, Massive Attack's third album, came out on Circa and Virgin in April 1998, and it's the sound of the Bristol collective pulling the blinds down. Tricky was gone, and this would be the last record with Mushroom, who left the following year, leaving 3D and Daddy G to carry on as a duo. 3D teamed up with producer Neil Davidge for the first time, and together they went darker and more atmospheric, letting the chill of dub, the grind of industrial music, hip hop beats and post-punk tension seep into slow, menacing grooves.

Horace Andy, Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins and Sarah Jay Hawley sing over the gloom, and the singles, "Risingson", "Teardrop", "Angel" and "Inertia Creeps", each sound like a different shade of dread. It gave the band their first UK number-one album, topped the charts in Australia, Ireland and New Zealand too, and its sales worldwide have passed 2.5 million copies.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.