Album Club
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Elliott Smith's eponymous album and second release is my favorite of his offerings. I was first introduced to Elliott's music by the film maker Wes Anderson. His masterpiece The Royal Tenenbaums is packed full of beautiful indie music including a haunting rendition of Jackson Browne's These Days by Nico. The highlight however is Needle in the Hay, the first track on this record. The sparse arrangement allowed Anderson to include dialogue inside the song as he showed a harrowing scene. It took me a couple of days searching the internet to find out who was behind the dark yet beautiful song. When I discovered Elliott, his trouble with depression and psychosis I immediately felt a kinship with him. Unfortunately he died before his time. Thankfully he had left a wealth of beauty, a body of work that strangely is still underappreciated. In a way I envy those who are unfamiliar with Elliott Smith, the joy of listening to him for the first time and discovering his legacy all over again would be wonderful.
Recorded mainly at friends' houses it is beautiful in its simplicity. Double tracking his vocals, a technique he used throughout his career, gives an almost ethereal quality and draws you in immediately. The subject matter is unquestionably dark but I always look at the cover to this album when I think of his music, it is not black, it is dark blue. A supreme musician, Elliott could play guitar, bass, piano, drums, anything that made a sound. He frequently played every instrument on his records. I always think that this is admirable, to learn and master even one instrument despite his trouble with his mental health. My favorite song on the album is Southern Belle, great and original chord progressions. Essentially Elliott was a great songwriter, one of the best. However he never escaped the moniker of indie artist. During his life he was constantly just beneath the surface of success. As a music fan it is my hope that I can introduce a true genius to this group.
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I discovered Fiona Apple and specifically this album when I was about twenty years old. A friend's girlfriend suggested I have a listen and leant me a copy of the CD. I was immediately hooked. She is undoubtedly a beautiful woman, she reminded me of a girl I had been hopelessly in love with when I was at school. But what I really connected with was her music. Her piano playing shows great musical ability, her fingers almost bounce off the keys as she forcefully projects her emotions and frustrations out through the instrument. Her voice can be soft and brooding, but sometimes it is as if she is spitting the words at you.
The lyrics are not typical of her fellow contemporary singer songwriters. She packs a lot into her verses, and they are at times introspective and at times an analysis of her surroundings. Often about relationships. I connected with her. The words ‘He said it’s all in your head and I said so is everything, but he didn’t get it, I thought he was a man but he was just a little boy’ struck me as very profound. I think I know what she meant, as if this realisation was a rite of passage, a discovery that led to adulthood. Similar to what I think Jimi Hendrix was trying to say in his song ‘Room full of Mirrors’. Maybe this was just teenage philosophising, I don’t know. These days I try to think more practically about the world. Whatever she meant I think she’s great. She is still putting out music more than twenty years after she began releasing her songs. Her most recent album Fetch the Bolt Cutters is getting great critical reviews.
I highly recommend listening to this album, there isn’t a bad song on it. I hope you enjoy.
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I discovered this record as I was recovering from a serious psychotic episode. I was in a period of transition where I had been released from hospital. I had moved from York to Wiltshire Westbury where I was living in a small house with my dad. Not yet ready to get back into the world of work but no longer as paranoid as I had been, I spent my days listening to music. Friends had mentioned his name in passing but it wasn't until this point that I had actually taken time to play the CD. What I heard was something magical, something that was unlike anything I had heard before.
Nick Drake's voice is rich and deep. His guitar playing is impeccable. As a guitar player myself I was inspired and immediately set about learning his songs and retuning my guitar to his weird and totally original tunings. His songs are wonderfully constructed.
Strangely this was not an unhappy time. I was young and convinced that my schizophrenia would eventually leave me alone. Life was full of promise and this album was the soundtrack to those days. The song Three Hours has an oriental feel and is probably the song I listen to most. Whenever I play it I'm transported away as if flying through the sky on a sunny day observing billowing oak trees below.
The album is quintessentially English and yet stands out as unique. No one really comes close, Davy Graham and Bert Jansch may be equals in the technical department, matching his guitar skills but didn't have the ear for a good song that Nick had.
He has often been compared to Elliott Smith, both died young. I read Nick's biography. It was short, he died age 26 and nothing particularly interesting happened in those years other than the usual shenanigans young people get up to. This followed by a period of self isolation and depression. He was considered shy and introspective, if you listen to his lyrics they are mainly about this. He wasn't a walkover however. He apparently got very hot under the collar when the string arrangements were presented to him, sacking the composer and hiring one of his university pals. The result was something spectacular, almost equaling the brilliance of Nick himself.
The name of the album comes from the warning slip that appears five cigarette papers before the end of the packet. I used to smoke the same brand of tobacco, I think it was called Amber Leaf.
There are elements of Jazz, Folk, Classical and Pop. It really stands alone. And yet as eerily predicted in the song Fruit Tree, he would never achieve success in his lifetime. I hope I can spread the word further and help promote this, the first of three brilliant albums by an underappreciated genius.
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This is a bit of a curve ball but seeing as the idea of this club is to introduce people to music they may not typically come across I thought I'd take the liberty of introducing everybody to Tryo and their first album Mamagubida. I grew up in France where English language music filled the airwaves and the charts. It was so dominant that a law was brought into force that a certain percentage of French radio's playlists had to be made up of French music. The radio stations got around this by cramming all their French music into the graveyard slot between 1am and 3am. I'm scratching my head now and struggling to think of any big French pop stars that were or are popular outside the French speaking world. I guess Serge Gainsbourg and Johnny Hallyday. I think a lot of people would be surprised to know that many of the classic 60's hits we are so familiar with started life as French songs, the melodies stolen and lyrics translated. I believe My Way started life in France.
I think of the type of music friends and fellow musical instrument players at school were into and would play in the fledgling bands and occasional jams we would have in the forest behind the school. It was typically jazz and reggae based. This album epitomizes that style of music and really represents a space and time for me. It was ubiquitous in the late nineties. So popular that the bus driver on a school trip stole my friends copy after she asked if we could play it on the journey. He made some lame excuse that he'd lost it.
In a way Tryo were victims of their own success, so popular that the initially underground, hip band were now yesterday's news and the cool kids were no longer interested. You could probably mathematically model the trajectory and notion of 'coolness', the more people like something the less appealing it becomes to those that form the zeitgeist. I suppose the Beatles are the exception that prove the rule. However, now twenty-two years after its release I think it has stood the test of time. Not having been back to France for twenty odd years other than for a brief holiday I have no idea how it is currently perceived but I do know that everyone I've shown it to in England loves it.
There is no need to speak French to enjoy it. But for those who are interested the lyrics are written from a politically left wing perspective. They sing about climate change, gender equality, the controversial issue of the legalization of cannabis as well as criticizing the government on a number of issues. As the band name suggests they are a three piece although work with a percussionist. The blend of the three voices is great and the rhythmic acoustic guitars is great. What really sets them apart for me however is the lead guitarist Manu. He plays superb jazz solos, he is supremely talented. Anyway, I digress. What I hope that you get from this is an opportunity to listen to a gem of an album that you would otherwise probably never have known existed. Enjoy!
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"What?????" I cry. I pick myself up, brush the crumbs of my breakfast from my knees and stroll to the bathroom where I splash some water on my face. I glance up at the mirror to see a look of disbelief still plastered across my countenance. "You haven't heard of The Shins?". While they have been absent, at least from UK radio stations for more than a decade they enjoyed a rich vein of form in the noughties. Their third album 'Wincing the Night Away' reached number 2 in the American billboard charts. It is their first album that I have chosen here, and what an introduction!
Probably (Although my memory prevents me from being fully sure of this) I first heard of the Shins in the film Garden State. This was a very accomplished directorial debut for Zach Braff who most of you will know from the show Scrubs. He won a Grammy for his song selection for the soundtrack. Undoubtedly the centerpiece is 'New Slang' by the Shins. Natalie Portman says something to the effect of 'it will change your life' as she hands the headphones of her Walkman to Braff's character.
They are the quintessential Indie band. There is nothing flash about them, James Mercer the singer/songwriter in the band would not look out of place leading a geography class. But isn't that what Indie music is all about? The music is more important than the creator. The melodies soar. I would even say that he comes close to matching Paul McCartney's abilities. It's as if he's taken a hammer and chisel to the air and carved out these beautiful songs. Lyrically he is interesting. On the third album he would sing: 'Born to multiply, Born to gaze into night sky, All you want is one more Saturday.' has anyone ever summed up humanity more succinctly?
I could say much more but I'm taking up valuable time while you could be listening. Hope you like it!
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I know, I know. I guess this was going to turn up at some point. It's a juggernaut. In fact when I told my brother I was setting up this club and asked him to guess which album I was starting with, he guessed this one without hesitation. It first came into my possession at Amsterdam train station. I was taking part in a debating conference in The Hague with my school and on the weekend before the debating started we took a trip to the country's capital. I remember it well because there was a group of kids stealing CDs from the shelves. Little did they know you had to take the box to the counter where they kept all the discs and provided them upon presentation. They were stealing empty plastic cases, serves them right! I must have liked the look of the cover and bought the album to play on my discman.
The funny thing about this album is that there isn't really a single on it, 'Money' gets played occasionally on the radio. But this is a piece of work created in a time when the listening to an album was meant to be an event and done so in its entirety. While we know the names of the artists that make up Pink Floyd, in a way they are a little like the Shins in that the music is king. David Gilmour is a guitarist who has a point to his solos, not unlike Mark Knopfler, there is no unnecessary riffing despite be quite capable of doing so.
While I doubt the conspiracy theory that the album was made to sync up with the Wizard of Oz is true, I did once watch a video where the music had been overlaid on the film. The one break in the record before the song 'Money' begins matches precisely the moment the film flicks from black and white to full technicolour.
A while back I listened to a debate in which an avid classical music fan argued that so called pop music was not a genuine artform. The person chairing the debate played him a section of Dark Side of the Moon and he could not deny that his interest had been grabbed. And therein lies the truth. This record stands up to Mozart, Bach or any other music creator you care to mention. It will last alongside the works of the greats for as long as humans stick around. Hans Zimmer has just reworked the final track 'Eclipse' for the new cinematic version of the Frank Herbert book Dune. A whole new generation will discover it.
More than a classic, it sits at the pinnacle of any human achievement.
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Well what can I say about Bob Dylan? His music has been the sound track to my life ever since I picked up a copy of a compilation cd and listened to Don't Think Twice it's Alright on the headphones in my local record shop. That track got me into fingerpicking and shifted my focus from the electric to the acoustic guitar for a good long while. While he churned out brilliant album after brilliant album in the 60's this record came later, mid-70's. It's a difficult call but I think this is his greatest work where his lyric writing, his storytelling and his ability to write great melodies all come together.
I've read countless biographies on Dylan yet still feel I know very little about him. President Obama claimed that when most artists were invited to play at the Whitehouse they wanted photos and autographs with the then leader of the free world. Dylan just smiled, shook his hand and walked off. Even when he won the Nobel prize he left it to the wire before picking it up, not even attending the ceremony in person. This isn't rudeness, it's just a man who guards his privacy fiercely.
Live these days he is terrible, I've seen him twice. But he is determined to do his own thing, just as he did when going electric. I wouldn't want it any other way. This album was written during a difficult breakup with his wife Sarah. The songs range from an almost cinematic story song 'Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts' to the heart breaking 'You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go' to 'Shelter From The Storm' which is a good contender for my favourite song of all time.
I'll sign off now but leave you with some words that I often come to in my life from 'Buckets of Rain': Life is sad, Life is a bust, all you can do is do what you must, You do what you must do and you do it well, I do it for you honey baby can't you tell?'
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Age fourteen I was a painfully shy teenager. My mum had tried to break me out of my shell through the years. She signed me up for clubs from drama to tennis, from swimming to scouts. I would go along obediently but hated it and would more than often tearfully beg my mum not have to return. Then one evening my dad told my brother and I that he had a surprise for us and to get in the car. This kind of thing was a rare occurrence, but curiosity lead me to jump in the passenger seat. On a swelteringly hot summer night I found myself at a Mark Knopfler gig. The next morning I asked my mum for guitar lessons.
When I was eighteen it was deemed cool to say Slash from Guns and Roses was your inspiration, Knopfler was so called dad rock. I didn’t care, I have loved everything Knopfler has done. He has the unique triple: Guitar God, Lyrical poet and Melodical Tunesmith.
I already had a connection with dIRE sTRAITS, my dad went to school with Mark and Dave Knopfler, Mark was slightly older but my dad recalls playing hide and seek with David. My dad’s mum, my grandma sent me their first album for my birthday when I was about twelve and even then I remember playing air guitar in the mirror, I had been bitten by the bug, a seed had been planted.
So why was this band so great? Mark was a journalist before the band had formed and I believe this contributed to his skill at telling stories. He has at no point fallen into the trap of being autobiographical and running out of interesting tales as some bands do, leading to tedious lyrics about hotel rooms. He discovered something that may seem obvious but is so often a mystery to the mediocre songwriter: put your focus outside of yourself and you’ll have an endless supply of things to sing about.
His songs are beautiful, you only have to listen to Romeo and Juliet (as I am right this moment) to hear his knack at pulling out a great melody. As a guitar player he does things on this album, notably at a point in ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ and one in ‘Telegraph Roads’ that are so beautiful it almost makes me cry.
Why this album? It’s a live performance of a tour that occurred right before the release of ‘Brothers in Arms’. They were on the cusp of becoming the biggest band in the world. This showcases them at their best and I defy anybody not to be moved by this performance. Enjoy!
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Guest Editor: Matthew Nicholson
Love – Forever Changes
Luke has kindly asked me to suggest an album for Album Club and my choice is “Forever Changes” by Love. It is one of my favourite albums and the album that I consider to be greatest arranged, produced and, often, written album I’ve heard.
A mainstay on most Greatest Albums lists, I was introduced to “Forever Changes” by friends as a student. It was sold to me alongside the legend that its main creator Arthur Lee wrote the album believing he was going to die. It was to be his final artistic statement to the world.
In fact, Lee went on to live a long life but “Forever Changes” remains what’s considered his greatest achievement. At Glastonbury 2003, the band played the album in full to a sun-soaked audience though I regrettably missed that.
Musically, I find it breath-taking. The range of instruments used across the album – strings, brass, acoustic - and the way they appear in its duration is nothing short of perfection.
Lyrically, “Forever Changes” is very of its time and its psychedelia is a product of L.A in 1967. There is a dark undertone beneath its hippy philosophy expressing a time of conflict and war. My favourites include when Lee sings “write the rules in the sky, but ask your leaders why” in ‘Live and Let Live’ and “you will have some time to put yourself on” in the closing refrain of ‘You Set The Scene’.
I imagine I will always want to listen to “Forever Changes”, throughout my life. When I put it on it never fails to put a smile on my face.
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Guest Editor: Lee Smith
This album has been hailed as one of the most influential records ever made. Hard to believe when it sold so few copies at the time, but it has been said that most people who listened to this went on and formed their own band, or were transformed and inspired to live their own life on their own terms. Subversive, yes. Revolutionary, yes. Beautiful, yes. Life changing, yes.
I first encountered the Velvet Underground on the South Bank Show around 1986. As a teenager I was hungry and thirsty and curious in that all-consuming adolescent quest for new experiences and new art for expressing those experiences. The sober, respectable Melvin Bragg introduced the band and I was gripped and fundamentally changed by what I saw and heard over the next hour. The documentary may still be on Youtube – check it out.
I had to get the record. The first thing that strikes one as odd is the album cover, an over-ripe banana on a white background with the name Andy Warhol written underneath. This had to be good. This was art.
The Velvet Underground comprised Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Mo Tucker. All had attitude and the desire to break new ground. They weren’t messing around. The album begins with Sunday Morning, a pretty pop song that will haunt you forever. There follows songs on such subjects as sado-masochism, drug dealing and drug abuse, obsessional love, thwarted love, Delmore Schwarz( great writer), and death.
There is no other record like this and no two tracks are the same. It is probably the most varied, surprising album ever made, ranging from straight pop to experimental drone, from guitar- driven rock to lovely love songs that will make you want to roam the streets looking for the One. Please listen, it will change and heal your life.
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Stop Press: At time of writing many musical publications are scrambling to compile their ‘albums of the year’ lists. There are a number of faces that keep popping up but there is one individual who seems to have unanimously endeared herself with critics and listeners alike and that is Fiona Apple.
So, Fiona lands herself with the lofty accolade of being the first artist to appear twice in Album Club. Back at the beginning of the year I featured the album ‘When the Pawn…’ and made a brief mention of the fact that this new album ‘Fetch the Bolt Cutters’ was beginning to make ripples. I hadn’t heard it at that point, now I have and it is fantastic.
A combination of experimental percussion, jazz double bass, baroque style piano motifs and Fiona’s own brand of deeply personal and highly emotionally intelligent lyrics all work together to yield something that could have gone terribly wrong but instead hits the nail firmly on the head. She walks a tightrope but never looks like falling.
She had always been interested in percussion, her first albums featured skilled drummers that played parts that wouldn’t look conspicuous on a drum and bass record. Here she goes further, to my ear it sounds like she is using cutlery and drinking goblets, whatever came to hand, to set interesting rhythms. In the first song on the album she holds a vocal note while playing a series of chords on the piano, initially it feels like she’s taking us somewhere comfortable and pretty but then takes us somewhere different with jarring dissonant chords. It is no less beautiful and infinitely more interesting.
Fiona has always played with her image of being a ‘crazy lady’. She puts out a lit match on her tongue in the music video for the song ‘Fast as You Can’ on ‘When the Pawn…’. She cultivates this further here with the striking front cover, a closeup photo of her wide-open eye, and with the sounds of her dog barking used almost as a sample. When lockdown looked imminent, she hopped in a campervan with her dog and best friend and set out for a rural farm, deliberately isolating herself. While the album has been five years in the making, it has become a bit of an anthem in these Covid-19 days.
The world of popular music can be cruel, particularly for women, as they age. While not old by anyone’s standards at 43, she is no spring chicken. She has lost none of her fire and remains fiercely opinionated. It is unlikely that she’ll fall into the states womanly role someone like Joni Mitchell has carved out. I believe and hope she’ll find a new niche all of her own.
At the end of the day, for an album to receive the plaudits ‘Fetch the Bolt Cutters’ has, the songs need to be good and original. This is undeniably the case and I would not have taken the unprecedented step of giving an artist a second featured record if I didn’t think it was any less than spectacular.
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So, I’m trawling through my newsfeed last week. Curious to see what was beyond the headlines of Biden’s inauguration. The image of a slightly overweight young man, a face flushed with the arrogance of youth, smoking a cigarette popped up. It was the fifteenth-year anniversary of the release of the fastest selling debut album in UK history. The man on the cover is Chris McClure, a friend of the band behind the record, taken on a night out in their hometown Sheffield. The band? Arctic Monkeys.
‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’, a title taken from a line in Alan Sillitoe’s novel ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’ landed like an atom bomb. By the time the band was ready to record their first album a furious bidding war had gotten underway to sign the band. In typical confidence, some might say arrogance (In a good way), they chose an indie label to release the album.
This practice of doing what they wanted to do without paying heed to the masses delights in the same way Bob Dylan’s stubbornness brings a pang of satisfaction. Of course, they have always been right, without faltering. Even the 2011 ‘Suck it and See’ that is probably the least revered of their releases is still in my mind a masterpiece.
In 2006 Myspace was coming into its own and Arctic Monkeys took full advantage of it. They were well known in the underground scene. When that bomb hit, they were a well oiled machine. Their debut single ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor’ was always going to be a hit. Such was the confidence of the band that they recorded the music video live. I can’t think of a single other act that has done that in the history of MTV.
Noel Gallagher, with typical modesty, declared that they were the first band to appeal to the youth since Oasis. They were hot stuff. Middle aged journalists scrambled to be associated with the four lads from Sheffield. Gordon Brown thought he was hilarious when he claimed he was more interested in the Arctic Circle than the Arctic Monkeys. This was just proof though of how far they had reached. To be mentioned in the Houses of Parliament.
The Mercury Prize is one of the highlights of the music world’s calendar. It is notoriously difficult to predict who is going to win, with the judges typically debating right up until the announcement. But in 2006 there was never any doubt. One of the people on the panel said that they just kept on saying ‘What is the best album of the year?’ it was no more a subjective choice, it was fact.
While they were being widely patronized, how could these working-class kids be so well cultured? They dropped the second single ‘When the Sun goes Down.’ They sung about what it was like to be young and disillusioned. Just as Amy Winehouse would do on her album Back to Black, they used Alex Turner’s way with words to document Sheffield’s twenty-year old’s life.
Later at the Brit Awards Alex Turner would deliver one of the speeches of the decade, it is known as the the ‘That Rock and Roll’ speech. You don’t see the boys in the tabloids. But Alex Turner has knowingly created a persona that he brings out in interviews and concerts. I think he’s probably pretty down to earth.
What does the record mean to me? I admire it and understand its quality and originality. While I don’t connect with it really on an emotional level I love listening to a slice of life in the mid noughties.
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How I discovered the greatest acoustic guitarist of all time:
When the internet was just a puppy one of the most wonderful things it offered was Tablature for guitar pieces. For those that don’t know, Tablature is a method used to write down music for the guitar, it takes a schematic approach and is immediately accessible, more so than the standard way music is written. In the communal spirit that the internet has continued to demonstrate, musicians would transcribe pieces of music by ear, write down the Tablature and share their work online.
I had been listening to Simon and Garfunkel’s record ‘The Sound of Silence’ on a CD my mum had bought. Paul Simon is a phenomenal musician, before the duo hit the big time, he travelled around the UK busking. He delved into the rich folk scene that the UK could boast in the mid-sixties. Sat at the feet of people like Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, he lapped up traditional pieces. Back in the US, inspired by what he had discovered, he made a huge splash in the popular music world.
One piece, a fingerpicking guitar instrumental called Anji, that features midway through ‘The Sound of Silence, caught my attention. I’d never heard such craftmanship on the acoustic. Like every kid my age I idolised the electric guitar gods. But suddenly here was mastery of the instrument of a different kind.
So ambitiously setting out to learn Anji I found the Tablature online and printed it off. Unusually however the author had included some notes with the transcription, information about the piece. I discovered that Anji was not in fact an original piece by Simon, nor was it a traditional piece. It had been written by a man named Davy Graham. So began the musical love affair of my lifetime with the guitar playing of this Englishman.
I read that as a young child his family had been invited on a picnic with the local GP’s family. When the Graham’s arrived the GP was playing an old acoustic. Davy was mesmerised and decided, with the stubborn streak that he was famous for, that he was not going on the picnic, but he was going to learn this piece. When everyone returned a couple of hours later, he could play it perfectly.
People would say that Davy could take a whole orchestra and condense it down onto his guitar. He was interested in what is now referred to as ‘World Music’. He wanted to learn Eastern pieces, he invented the tuning DADGAD. He was before his time.
The album I would have liked to use to promote his work is called ‘After Hours’, however the full record is not on YouTube. This was made in a student bedroom at Hull University after a gig he had played there. He had a friend who studied at Hull and had invited him back to hangout with some friends. The friend had an old tape recorder and recorded, along with the occasional chatter of some of the pals who were making merry, an hour-long masterclass in guitar playing. Covering everything from Classical, to Blues, to Indian and much in between.
The album I will provide the link to is called ‘Large as Life and Twice as Natural’. This showcases his interest in crossing over styles. He starts with Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’. He plays Ragas and Blues. It’s a great listen. My hope is that if there are any budding guitarists reading this they go out and seek Davy Graham, the greatest acoustic guitarist that ever lived.
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Guest Editor: Pete Ritchie
My first introduction to Mezzanine was through the song 'Teardrop'. It definitely was, and still is to a naturally lesser extent a very popular play for music channels and radio.
It won MTV Europe Music Award for Best Video, and has been featured in several TV series, including 'House' and 'Prison Break'.
I find it incredibly powerful, and chilling.
Another great song on the album is 'Angel'; I remember listening to it while running. It is suspenseful, dramatic and dark. The video is also excellent; it has been interpreted to
signify confronting your fears. The distorted bassy sound that builds and builds evokes anxiety, but grips you.
This distortion continues in 'Risingson'. The sound is typical for Massive Attack, whose music is influenced by several genres: Dub, Reggae and Hip-Hop. They essentially pioneered Trip-Hop, and alongside
Portishead are the biggest band in the genre. The Reggae influence can be particularly heard on the collaborations with Jamaican singer and songwriter 'Horace Andy'. He features on 'Angel' and 'Man Next Door'.
'Man Next Door' takes you on a heavy, immersive journey.
For me, the best song on the album is 'Dissolved Girl'. Mysterious vocals, and a well crafted bass melody amazingly fit the theme of the rest of the album.
The calming ambience of 'Exchange', almost feels like sarcastic humour when mixed alongside all the moody, gritty alternatives.
The album comes to its end with a run of songs, that have this distinct MA sound.
I particularly like 'Black Milk' which has a haunting, vintage feel to it. The looping low-end drives you round the bend in a fantastic way.
Tension, bass and beautiful eclecticism sum up Mezzanine. It is thrilling, but expect a somewhat challenging listen at times. Zone out, appreciate it, and take note of how you feel; it very well may move you.
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