MASSIVE ATTACK
Protection
WBR2
Wild Bunch / Virgin Records 1994
10 Tracks. 49mins04secs

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Recovering from the success of Blue Lines would have proved impossible for most. But Massive Attack are made of steel. Four years after the release of their first album, they were back with Protection. Shara Nelson gone, Tricky busy working on his own project, it was the turn of Tracey Thorn, of Everything But The Girl fame, and Nicolette to endorse the Massive sound. Protection was as slow moving as its predecessor, only a bit lighter. The title track, witnessing the return in great form of Tracey Thorn, is a lingering, melancholic song, that instantly sticks into the head. Karmacoma, also featured, in a very different form, on Tricky's Maxinquaye, is claustrophobic and dirty. But then, Three and Sly, featuring Nicolette, short and fresh, are a disconcerting contrast to the ambient heaviness of the more introvert songs. There is no repetition of the instant magic of Unfinished Sympathy here, despite the orchestral Heat Miser, but the seduction is definitely present all the way through. To add to the unsettled grounds on which Massive Attack walk, the gloomy cover of The Doors' Light My Fire, recorded live, and closing the album pauses more questions than it answers about the future direction the band would choose.

4/5

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TRACKLIST

Protection
Karmacoma
Three
Weather Storm
Spying Glass
Better Things
Euro Child
Sly
Heat Miser
Light My Fire (Live)

MASSIVE ATTACK Discography

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