Three years after their successful and groundbreaking debut release of 'Blue Lines', Massive Attack were back and brought this more tender, and rounded compilation to our attention. Some people have often said of this to be the weakest of their albums, possibly due to lack of 'innovation' or transformation from the previous efforts. It is without a doubt not in the same league of success as Blue Lines, as it is the least-selling album to date.
This does not necessarily mean it's the worst. In fact, there are some quite amazing sounds on this record, Our introductory track 'Protection' is a beautiful, delicate and sensitive piece, the song alone should recieve merit for very commendable lyrics, something i have always found present in any album produced by this group. 'Karmacoma' could perhaps best define the groups musical direction of this time, shifting in and between soul and dub, renowned now for almost 'inventing' the trip hop genre, although they themselves absolutely hate this labelling, and prefer to be called a sound system, modestly. The Chorus of this track is powerful, thought provoking and a pleasure to listen to. Perhaps one of the dissapointing things with this album is the presence of a couple of quite literally 'pointless' tracks. I often find it quite irritating to listen to 'Three' amidst being an avid Massive Attack fan myself, this needs to be said. The fourth track of the album, 'Weather Storm' truly is for those lazy summer days when the afternoon fades to evening and the general pace of things slows to a relaxed, more refined movement. Something this group seem to be brilliant at doing is producing innovative music that quite literally anyone can chillout to.
Unfortunately the group decided to cover 'the doors' with 'Light my fire' and 'chucked' it on the record, this really does strike me as the token 'filler' track and thus irritates me somewhat, but on a lighter note and alternate hypothesis, it is reminiscent of the 'dub days' and ragga-influenced parties and DJ shows that were taking place in around the south of England slightly before the Blue Lines era. Perhaps my favourite song on this album is 'Better things' What a wonderful track this is, a definition of soul if there ever was one. Tracey Thorn lends her exceptional vocal talent and saves the day. Something quite interesting with Protection is what would appear to be, the shift to a more soul-based sound, the only tracks on Protection that would suggest otherwise would be 'Karmacoma' and 'Eurochild', evocative of their debut album.
Nonetheless a striking but pleasing and yet melancholic track. Perhaps one of the more definitive things this album will be remembered for is that the music videos started to become more surrealistic with this release, as watching 'Sly' is almost hypnotising and it begs for all kinds interpretation, this, is a very good thing. Something Massive Attack have always been particularly good at is with the 'classical' instrument instruction within certain tracks. Heat Miser is epic, and i'm sure it has been in at least five adverts over the last 13 years. Many view this album as a weakpoint in Massive Attack's ever changing structure, but i believe it to be a necessary platform for evolution and invigoration that was needed in Britain during the early 90's.
