Their discography is not that big, but I'd like to buy their best album. What do you suggest?

Well, I only have Blue Lines, but that's a great disc. I've read a few articles and reviews that claim it's their best.

Protection

This is kind of a weird band to get into as their albums differ from beginning to now. It's probably due to members leaving as each album was released (including Tricky), now I'm pretty sure that it's a one man band.

I started out with MEZZANINE which was their most popular. It's dark, ethereal, kind of gothy almost. This one is my favorite, mostly because it has "Teardrop", "Angel", "Inertia Creeps". I loves me some dark sh*t.

I picked up 100TH WINDOW and it's kind of similar, except no big stand out "hits" or singles like MEZZANINE has. The Sinead O'Connor's vocals kind of annoyed me.
A lot of mystical Middle Eastern sounding stuff with the stringed instruments, etc. which is always great.

Then I went back to the beginning and picked up PROTECTION and BLUE LINES:

Man, what a difference. BLUE LINES is almost like hip-hop/reggae/R&B whatever which I'm not really into, except the song "Daydreaming" is worth the price of admission!!!
I know "Unfinished Symphony" was a big hit, but I don't know why.

PROTECTION sounds like a cross between BLUE LINES and MEZZANINE, the standout track for me being the title track, "Protection" and "Heatmiser". The rest of it is hit or miss.

So if I were to rate them in order to my preference, it would be:

1. MEZZANINE
2. 100th WINDOW
3. PROTECTION
4. BLUE LINES

I like Blue Lines the best. Apparently YMMV.

I like Mezzanine. But then again, it's the only one I've heard.

Blue Lines

The last song, Hymn of the Big Wheel, with the poetic lyrics, haunting music and singing whales, is awesome.

If you like Blue Lines...you guys should check out the Urban Species album called "blanket". It's quite similar, a little more hip-hoppy, but damn is it good.

As for Massive...Mezzanine is always the place to start.

Mezzanine

Protection

It's hard to pick a favorite really. No matter where you rank them I don't think you could go wrong

My pesonal ranking would probably be:

1) Mezzanine
2) 100th Window
3) Blue Lines
4) Protection

Michael

Gimme flak, but I thought "Blue Lines" sounded dated VERY quickly. I think "Mezzanine" is their best by far. Stay far away from "100 Windows". A real stinker.

Another vote for mezzanine. I'm not a huage massive attack or eleltronica fan by any means, but mezzanine is one of my top ten all=time favorite albums. Its got so many layers, and the perfect album to chill out to.

Plus Mezzanine has the incomparable Elizabeth Fraser from Cocteau Twins on a couple of tracks.

I think the majority vote is for Mezzanine. I'm going to pick that up.

What's wrong with 100 Windows? Just curious.

That woman's voice just moves me every time I hear it. She could sing about paperclips and make me cry...

C. Twins do have a song where the lyrics are just a list of Latin names for butterflies. And it sounds great.

For those who don't know, she also did the singing for the elf music in LOTR. I'm not sure exactly which parts, but a good chunk. Maybe the forest elves?

ETA: We're listening to Mezzanine right now. It's really brilliant.

Don't forget to check out Portishead while you're at it!

In FOTR, she sings on "A Lament For Gandalf" (the scene in Lothlorien where the Fellowship is resting up after Moria, she's the lead "elf" singing with the "elvish" choir).

She also sings that solo part in Haldir's death scene at Helm's Deep in TTT.