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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."

Protection pulls all the most accessible elements of Blue Lines, the atmosphere, the rhythms, the vocals, and streamlines them into a sleek ride under urban lights. It spawned 3 top 30 singles and the album debuted at number 4 on the charts, making good on the promise and potential of their game changing debut the second time around. While not as essential as their debut, I cannot comprehend what kind of music connoisseur wouldn’t love having this in their collection. It is as accessible and immediate as trip-hop gets. In order for it to achieve that accessibility a bit of the edge and tension of Blue Lines had to be sacrificed, luckily, those elements would make a comeback in a huge way on what came next.

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Label: Virgin
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 180 Gram
Reissued: 2016 / Original: 1994
Genre: Electronic
Style: Downtempo, Dub, Trip Hop

File under: Downtempo
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