Massive Attack – Mezzanine

My copy is flat a dead quiet. Sound is awesome and expansive. I am extremely pleased with this purchase. Do I need to bring the condition rating down seeing as I needed to write which side (A, B, C, D) it is on the centre sticker with pencil?

Put through a full wash cycle then a full autocycle (wash and dry) on my HuminGuru before being played on a Pro-ject DC Evo with Ortofon 2M Blue, through the MM phono stage of the Cambridge Audio Evo 150, to my ears though a pair of Klipsch Heresy IV.

Please Note: My star rating system is based on my own beliefs and a big part of it is based on the number of times I will actually play it, or how much that album means to me personally.

First pressing is 1st pressing. All the remastered/recut reissues are flat & boring. This is the real Mezzanine feeling & sound.

Das wahrscheinlich abgefahrenste Album, das ich besitze (auf eine gute Art)
die Produktion ist der Wahnsinn. Frei übersetzt von @mfmarkos, danke!

Just to be clear: Only the so called "Variant 10" is the OG 2013 Virgin40 pressing. From 2014 until at least 2022 it has been repressed with different matrices. This initial 2013 pressing was sold out pretty quickly (came out in November & did not reach the end of the year), so not many of these will exist compared to the 42000+ owning here…

Flat and quiet press. Low end is definitely there. Excellent soundscape. Captures the panning tricks beautifully. Great dynamics and separation. Have to disagree with some, not flat at all, vocals are right out front rest of the music moves as artist intended. Honestly this sounds phenomenal, curious to what others are listening to it through.

Setup
AT-LP1240
ATVM95ML
Bellari VP549
Yamaha A-S501
Wharfdale Diamond 240
Definitive Audio ProSub800

There are a few moments where the record sounds 10/10, the rest is a 9 or 9,5. It never dissapoints. No pops, even on the first grooves, dead silent. (maybe one or two in between tracks but BARELY noticible). It sounds good, the voices and highs are really clear and also the bass, the mids are pretty good but there are some times where i wanted to hear them come out more. I wrote the review on this release couse it had the Made in sticker on the back. I bought it thinking it would actually be the 2013 one, this still sounds great. Only downside, it's hard to find a copy under €45, here in Italy.

Sounds absolutely fine to me,deep bass, nice clear highs.

The only issue I have, and it might be my ge and failing eyesight but for the life of me I can not distinguish side a,b,c,d from one another.

All 4 sides are plain orange with no indication to what side is what.

Like I say it maybe a me issue but I'd rather know what side I'm playing than taking a random guess

Despite that it's a decent sounding reissue.

It skips a whole lot. Bought it at b&n for $42 and it sounds like shit. Cleaning it didn’t help. It’s a little warped, before and after cleaning.

I am not sure if I would call this a “meh” sounding record. This was a super dense sounding record and the frequencies from different instruments overlapping may make it sound a bit muddy but this is still a very dynamic sounding record with excellent stereo separation.

The sound quality is significantly different from what’s on Qobuz (which I found surprising since I thought they would at least use the same masters). This lacquer was cut by Tim Young, the original mastering engineer of this record.

Obviously I've not got the 2013 pressing which others suggest sounds better to compare to, but to my ear this sounds great - really deep bass, rich sound. Barely any pops or noise on my copy either, played very clean first time.

Echo other comments about the jacket being a bit bad quality though, I bought mine on a holiday and just bringing it back in my bag has creased the corners. Proper gatefold would be better for a double disc anyway.