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Protection (1994) is Massive Attack's second album. DJ Mad Professor remixed the album in 1995 under the name No Protection.

Sound

Protection was featured in the top ten of Rolling Stone magazine's 'Coolest Albums of All Time List,' calling it "great music for when you're driving around a city at 4 am," due to the 'chill out' nature of the album. Like most of Massive Attack's albums, the music often defies quick categorization, ranging from R&B (title track, Sly) to hip hop/rap (Karmacoma, Eurochild) to reggae-tinged synthpop (Spying Glass) to classical-influenced electronica instrumentals (Weather Storm, Heat Miser). This album in particular has a heavy use of string instruments (or at least synthesizers imitating string instruments) compared to other Massive Attack albums, although certain tracks before and after have featured strings, like Unfinished Sympathy and Live With Me.

=Reviews=

4 of 5 stars "Even with the departure of the smoky-voiced Shara Nelson, this English dance-pop outfit still delivers brilliant body music that doesn't neglect the brain. Cool, sexy stuff, it smoothly fuses dub, club and soul, grounding its grace in sampled hip-hop beats. With four vocalists on board – Everything but the Girl's Tracey Thorn, reggaeman Horace Andy, Nigerian-born Nicolette and rapper Tricky – Protection lacks the focus of the masterful 1991 debut Blue Lines. But it lingers longer. "Karmacoma," "Sly" and the instrumental "Heat Miser" sizzle and insinuate; band members 3-D, Mushroom and Daddy G are ruminators, too, who expertly render mixed emotion – passion crossed with sadness or the tension of glamour and threat that surges through "Eurochild": "I walk in a bar, and immediately I sense danger." (RS 705)

PAUL EVANS of Rolling Stone magazine

"Massive Attack's sophomore effort could never be as stunning as Blue Lines, and a slight drop in production and songwriting quality made the comparisons easy. Still, from the first two songs Protection sounds worthy of their debut. The opening title track is pure excellence, with melancholy keyboards, throbbing acid lines, and fragmented beats perfectly complementing the transcendent vocals of Tracey Thorn (an inspired choice to replace the departed Shara Nelson as their muse). Tricky, another soon-to-be-solo performer, makes his breakout on this record, with blunted performances on "Karmacoma," another highlight, as well as "Eurochild." But even though the production is just as intriguing as on Blue Lines, there's a bit lacking here — Massive Attack doesn't summon quite the emotional power they did previously. Guest Craig Armstrong's piano work on the aimless tracks "Weather Storm" and "Heat Miser" leans uncomfortably close to Muzak, and his arrangement and conducting for "Sly" isn't much better (vocals by Nicolette save the track somewhat). Though it's still miles ahead of the growing raft of trip-hop making the rounds in the mid-'90s, Protection is rather a disappointment."

JOHN BUSH of the All Music Guide

Track listing

  1. "Protection" (Vowles/Del Naja/Marshall/Thorn) – 7:51
  2. "Karmacoma" (Vowles/Del Naja/Marshall/Tricky/Norfolk/Locke) – 5:16
  3. "Three" (Vowles/Del Naja/Marshall/Hooper/Suwoton) – 3:49
  4. "Weather Storm" (Vowles / DelNaja / Marshall / Hooper / Armstrong / Harmon / Napoleon /Lloyd /Murray) – 4:59
  5. "Spying Glass" (Vowles/Del Naja/Marshall/Hooper/Andy) – 5:20
  6. "Better Things" (Vowles/Del Naja/Marshall/Thorn/Watt/Brown) – 4:13
  7. "Eurochild" (Vowles/Del Naja/Marshall/Tricky/Norfolk/Locke) – 5:11
  8. "Sly" (Vowles, Del Naja/Marshall/Hooper/Suwoton/Goldman) – 5:24
  9. "Heat Miser" (Vowles/Del Naja/Marshall/Hooper/de Vries) – 3:39
  10. "Light My Fire" (live) (The Doors) – 3:15

Personnel

Massive Attack albums | 1994 albums

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Protection (album)".

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