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Protection

Massive Attack - Protection Audio CD

A fair review of the Massive Attack "Protection" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Massive Attack reviews here, or go back to the Massive Attack tabs.

Band: Massive Attack
Title: Protection
Rating:

Release Date: 1995-01-24
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Protection 2: Karmacoma 3: Three 4: Weather Storm 5: Spying Glass 6: Better Things 7: Eurochild 8: Sly 9: Heat Miser 10: Light My Fire [Live]

Green Andy Reviews: Massive Attack - Protection
But compared to the albums immediately before and after it, it's nothing to write home about. It's a testament to the band's strengths that Massive Attack's worst album still works on any level at all. Their first album BLUE LINES was a milestone in the world of trip hop, and it seems like the group wasn't sure how to follow it up. Unfortunately, they did the worst possible thing: they basically made the same album again, but not as well. If I ever make an album as great as BLUE LINES, I'll be tempted to copy myself too, but hopefully I'll do a better job than they did.

Protection opens with a slow dramatic opener just like its predecessor, but "Protection" lacks the spare menace and singular production of "Safe From Harm", and Tracey Thorn is a much more conventional vocalist than the last album's Shara Nelson. The tiny "Payback" sample in the middle of the song's main riff is cute, but otherwise this song eases into background music mode too much to be effective, and the rest of the album follows in this vein. "Karmacoma" is one of the better tunes of the bunch, with great vocals by the soon-to-quit Tricky and a jumped-up dub beat. It's a poor cousin to BLUE LINES' "Five Man Army", but still not bad. The thing that really sinks this album is the instrumentals. "Weather Storm" and "Heat Miser" are completely inconsequential tracks that meander aimlessly and suck up eight minutes of the listener's attention for no good reason. The production on this album is overall much warmer and less abrasive than their previous work, so these instrumental bits really turn into Muzak. There's another minor triumph mid-album with "Better Things", one of the few instances on the record where both the vocals and the music are equally gripping. The live cover of "Light My Fire" at the end is just the final nail in the coffin; it's abrasive, but in the wrong way. It sounds like it was made by a completely different, and much crappier, reggae rock band. I'm getting pissed off just listening to it as I compose this review.

Shortly after the release of this album, Massive Attack contracted the Mad Professor to remix it, and his version of the record, NO PROTECTION, is leagues better. After that, the band underwent a massive (ha!) reinvention, and played up their more monolithic side for the enormous-sounding MEZZANINE. So there are lots of really great Massive Attack albums you could buy before you need to consider getting this one. If I had known beforehand what a disappointment this is, I probably wouldn't own it myself.

Thanks Amazon!!!
Amazon has logistics down to a fine art. . product was received in excellent conditions an within 24hrs, wow!.

Luxury relaxation
It depends on mood, when thinking what to listen. Can't say, which MA album is best. If someone asks me for best MA songs, it will be nothing from this album. But I listen to this album most, its relaxation for me, relaxation in luxury way. This CD sounds very special, so clear, softly, beatifully, with nobleness. Great album.

Good, but not great
I have no real complaints about it except for the title track and another one by the same vocalist. I really like most of this CD. The lyrics are ridiculously boring and simple. It's really painful to listen to.

Save for those two tracks, this album is quite good. Like Mezzanine, it's got style, class and talent. Spyglass and Karmacoma are especially good. I gave it 3 stars, but I really think it deserves 3. 5. .

The rarest of things -- a perfect electronic album.
Protection tends to get lost between those two. Massive Attack have gotten a lot of praise, but most of it is either for their first album Blue Lines, or for their third album Mezzanine. But in fact, it's Protection that's really the best Massive Attack album. I can listen to it the whole way through, and when it's over, I find myself wishing there was even more. I can't even remember the last time I bought an album that I could say that about.

Perhaps Protection doesn't have the same reputation as Blue Lines and Mezzanine because it doesn't have any "obvious" hits, deliberately powerful songs like "Safe From Harm" or "Angel. " The biggest single here is "Protection," a long eight-minute rumination without any particular build-up or dramatic climax. The chorus isn't a pop chorus, either, because it doesn't repeat a hook. But nevertheless, the song is beautiful. The gentle mid-tempo rhythm steadily draws one into the mood of the song.

The lyrics in the album don't matter so much. Massive Attack were never known for being great poets. But the words do contribute to the mood. In "Protection," Tracey Thorn encourages "you" to take care of someone who needs help, which first means some girl, but later seems to become "you. " The choice of words is good: "You can lean on me / And that's more than love, that's the way it should be" and "She's a girl and you're a boy / Sometimes we look so small. " I really like Massive Attack's style of romanticism -- instead of dramatizing individual angst and professing eternal love (okay, except for "One Love," I guess, but even that was more about how Horace Andy believes in being faithful than about star-crossed bliss), they usually refer to smaller, everyday situations and imply that small changes in these situations might have a great impact. No wonder they make the best make-out music. By the way, Protection is excellent for that purpose.

Then there's "Karmacoma," another candidate for a big single that also doesn't quite fit comfortably into that role. The song does have a pop chorus, and features Robert del Naja and Tricky in a Blue-Lines-like rap exchange, but it's driven by a very curious reggae-inflected rhythm and a groovy keyboard break that resembles old Latin music more than techno or hip-hop. The song is upbeat, but it has the same hushed production as "Protection," which makes it sound disconcerting and vaguely ominous. This is very different from the band's earlier work, and it's all the more impressive when you consider that, by 1994, other bands had just begun catching up to Blue Lines, which had been released three years earlier.

Protection is very different from Massive Attack's other albums stylistically. I usually say that Blue Lines is a modern-day soul album, with elements of rap and techno. Those things are still present here, but the overall atmosphere is closer to some kind of old-style, early twentieth-century romance than to smooth 70s soul, albeit with a techno production. There are two instrumentals which use pianos and strings for the main melodies. Both of them are gorgeous. "Weather Storm" in particular anchors the pianos with a deep electronic bass groove and dub-style keyboard textures. "Heat Miser" repeats what sounds like someone breathing through an oxygen mask. Somehow, next to the strings, this has a poignant effect, creating a sense of fragility.

Protection also has the least reliance of all Massive Attack albums on the band's core vocalists. Robert del Naja appears on only two songs, compared to four on each of the other albums. The ever-reliable Horace Andy has one turn on "Spying Glass," a remake of one of his own old Jamaican standards, with a great deep house beat and some reggae-style drum breaks. The other songs are either instrumentals or use guest vocalists, and by the way, Protection also has the best guest vocalists of any Massive Attack album. Nicolette Suwoton in particular has a very distinctive vocal style, but both women perform with subtlety and dramatic restraint, compared to Shara Nelson's occasional soul-diva histrionics (not that that's altogether a bad thing) or Sara Jay's angsty spoiled-teenager voice.

But even though Protection doesn't have any obvious hits, I liked it immediately, whereas it took me a long time to really enjoy Blue Lines and Mezzanine as albums. That's because those other albums also have a bunch of lesser songs that don't make strong impressions when compared to the big hits. But the songs on Protection are consistently excellent. The second side is just as good as the first. For instance, "Better Things" might seem like a rewrite of "Protection," because it features the same vocalist and uses a similar musical backdrop, but in fact, it stands up perfectly well on its own. The lyrics are knowing and bitter, and Tracey Thorn delivers them with a weary understatement that almost makes one feel vicariously ashamed for whoever it is that she's addressing. Immediately after that is "Eurochild," which has the kind of noirish menace that I really wish someone could depict these days. Tricky and del Naja's relaxed, gravelly half-whispers are perfect for suggesting danger underneath the surface, and halfway through the song there's an instantly catchy keyboard hook. This would be a good candidate for a big hit, but it wasn't released as a single.

The only flaw of the album is the very last track, a live cover of "Light My Fire" by The Doors. The recording is so muddy that only Horace Andy's voice is audible, and anyway, that's not the sort of song that Massive Attack are best at. I prefer to think of it as an unnecessary bonus track rather than part of the album. The album itself, however, is perfect, and I highly recommend it regardless of whether or not you usually enjoy this kind of music.

You can see a complete list of all Massive Attack discography, or go back to the Massive Attack tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.