Massive Attack – Protection [180g Vinyl LP]

Massive Attack – Protection [180g Vinyl LP]

Details

• Format: Vinyl LP, Album, Reissue, Stereo
• Catalogue Number: 5700962
• Barcode: 602557009620
• Genre: Trip-Hop / Electronic / Dub / Soul
• Label: Virgin Records
• Originally Released: 26 September 1994
• Reissue Released: 2nd December 2016
• Pressing: 180 Gram Vinyl
• Condition: New & Sealed

Description

Protection is Massive Attack's second studio album and a record that deepened and enriched the trip-hop sound the Bristol collective had helped define on their landmark debut Blue Lines (1991). Released on 26 September 1994 via Circa/Wild Bunch Records, it arrived at a moment when Massive Attack — 3D, Mushroom and Daddy G — were navigating internal tensions, the pressures of success and a rapidly evolving musical landscape. The result was a more introspective, dub-drenched and soulful record than their debut, and one that has grown considerably in stature in the three decades since its release.

Recorded at Wild Bunch Studios in London and Massive Attack and Antenne Studios in Bristol — with all tracks mixed at Olympic Studios, London — the album is anchored by a remarkable cast of vocal collaborators. Tracey Thorn of Everything But the Girl delivers one of the finest performances of her career on the title track "Protection" — a gorgeous, widescreen soul ballad built on warm dub bass and shimmering strings that became one of the group's most enduring songs. Tricky — at this point still part of the Massive Attack collective — brings his distinctive murmur to the unsettling, hallucinatory "Karmacoma"; Nicolette contributes her striking, coolly detached vocals to "Sly", "Three" and "Eurochild"; and the album closes with a hypnotic live cover of The Doors' "Light My Fire", featuring Tracey Thorn and Massive Attack at their most playfully exploratory.

Instrumentally, the album is a masterclass in texture and restraint. "Weather Storm" is a cinematic highlight — built entirely around Corbett Vs. Dempsey's orchestral arrangement and a subtle, pulsing beat that never quite breaks into a full groove. "Heat Miser" is a dense, low-slung dub piece; "Better Things" swings between melancholy and warmth; and "Spying Glass" — a rework of the Horace Andy classic — shows the group's deep roots in Jamaican music.

Protection reached number four on the UK Albums Chart and was certified Platinum in the UK. It has been ranked among the greatest albums of the 1990s by numerous publications and is widely regarded as one of the defining records of the trip-hop era. This 2016 Virgin Records reissue is pressed on heavyweight 180g vinyl.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Protection
2. Karmacoma
3. Three
4. Weather Storm
5. Spying Glass

Side B

1. Better Things
2. Eurochild
3. Sly
4. Heat Miser
5. Light My Fire (Live)

Credits

• 3D (Robert Del Naja) – Vocals, Production
• Mushroom (Andrew Vowles) – Production
• Daddy G (Grant Marshall) – Vocals, Production
• Tracey Thorn – Vocals (Protection, Light My Fire)
• Tricky – Vocals (Karmacoma)
• Nicolette – Vocals (Sly, Three, Eurochild)
• Horace Andy – Vocals (Spying Glass)
• Nellee Hooper – Producer (Protection)
• Jack Dangers – Producer (Karmacoma)
• Corbett Vs. Dempsey – Orchestral Arrangement (Weather Storm)
• Label – Virgin Records