Teardrop

Massive Attack uses a variety of vocalists. On this one it was Elizabeth Fraser, whose lyrics were inspired by the death of her one-time close friend, singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley. The news that Buckley had drowned whilst swimming came while Fraser was recording this song. "That was so weird," she recalled to The Guardian in 2009. "I'd got letters out and I was thinking about him. That song's kind of about him - that's how it feels to me anyway." Fraser sang for The Cocteau Twins, worked on three tracks of Massive Attack's Mezzanine album and contributed to the soundtrack of Lord of the Rings - Fellowship Of The King.

Part of this song was used as the theme music for the Fox TV show House. Massive Attack's Robert "3D" Del Naja told The Guardian February 6, 2010 that the band cut themselves out of a fortune with the licensing of this song to the show. He explained: "We got an email from Bryan Singer saying the entire concept of House was based on 'Teardrop.' We were flattered. We let him have it." Singer, who was an executive producer on the show, was adamant about using the song because its music video, featuring an animatronic fetus singing from inside a womb, inspired the show's special effects. He explained to Ain't It Cool News: "What I brought to the show was the idea of making that effect less CGI and using a more practical stuff, taking from the famous 'Teardrop' video by Massive Attack, building bladders and organ models and shooting them in water tanks to create a more viscerally real portrayal of the human body. I defined that element."

The track is built around a sample of the 1973 song "Sometimes I Cry" by the jazz pianist Les McCann. It's taken from a vinyl record with lots of pops and scratches that are essential to the sound. When Massive Attack performed the song live in 2019, they replayed the sample from a reel-to-reel tape recorder to preserve the analog sound.