Massive Attack - Protection

Don't all be boring and vote for the title track plz

voted for the title track

I like how that comically awful Doors cover is tacked on to the end of this otherwise unimpeachable album.

Can't choose between the two Tracy Thorn tracks.

Tracey Thorn, sorry.

Spying Glass

classic album

never really liked the "no protection" dub album but put it on a few weeks ago and finally got it

voted title track

spying glass

j/k protection

Karmacoma

Ha, voted title track because it's their best song. Would also consider Better Things and both Nicolette tracks.

Better Things, perhaps their most gorgeous moment.

"Karmacoma" easily

"Protection" will always remind me a rainy late afternoon in July 1997 in an Edinburgh pub. No one in my group spoke for six minutes.

I like how that comically awful Doors cover is tacked on to the end of this otherwise unimpeachable album.

― Angkor Waht (Neil S)

It's a similar situation to the first B-52's album.

Better Things. But Karmacoma a close second.

Protection or Spying Glass or Three.

or Better things

Better Things.

sly

the Nicolette songs on here are my fave Massive Attack tracks ever (leaning towards "Three" for my vote). interesting how similar the effect is with Zero 7's Simple Things and Sia Furler's 2 guest spots.

the best Massive Attack songs kinda ruin the rest for me - they're very much a pick and choose band: as in their album track peaks stick out like sore thumbs. at least for me… I suspect most people like their whole albums.

kinda happy to see the love it's getting here, this album usually gets so over looked between blue lines and mezzanine

lots of good stuff on this one. it's either protection, three, spying glass, eurochild (i have got the hideous t-shirt, for a while i was a eurochild in luxembourg) or sly.

Protection. Could listen to it forever.

This album rules so hard

great album but the nicolette tracks are way out in front for me, can't decide which of them though...

'Protection' is nice, but I'd rather hear 'Teardrop' 90% of the time, which is Mezzanine's analogue.

I dunno, 'Teardrop' is an immaculately produced, beautiful piece of music, but I find 'Protection' far more affecting overall, it's a little more grounded. 'Teardrop' is more something I admire.

it helps that I prefer Thorn's voice to Ms. Cocteau's.

SHIT! SHIT! I should've voted for Sly! Can I change my vote? How did I forget about that??

Oh I never really got on with Tracey Thorn's voice all that much TBH. Since I first heard EBTG as a teen she just sounded so down and dreary. Actually she's someone I admire more than I enjoy, so fancy that Alfred.

I don't like Tracey Thorn because she sounds like Dido.

that's impossible. she was there first. so maybe dido sounds like tracey thorn but not the other way roud. which is not true anyway as dido has got such a clean, uninteresting voice whereas tracey thorn's clear and warm voice really grips me whenever i hear her i am paralysed like a deer in the headlight of a car and then i have to listen to the words she sings.

Sly!

Sad I didn't vote Sly.

this thread is bringing back some bad memories.
i recommended heat miser for background music once and they thought it was an original song by me, credited me, then someone got mad thinking i was taking cred for massive attack's stinking work

voted: heat miser

Protection. Could listen to it forever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE-Xn37A1sc

Voted 'Better Things', but I can't actually remember most of these from their names alone and I'm too lazy to dig out the CD, so I might actually prefer something else.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

the title track may be the boring vote but it is the safe vote, and who does not need to feel safe

well i've leaned on you for years,
now you can lean on me.
that's more than love,
it's the way it should be

"Weather Storm" over "Karmacoma" and "Eurochild" cause no one else is gonna vote for it ("prove me wrong, kids. prove me wrong.")

I love Karmacoma but title track really is actually the best here and also thanks for reminding me to dig this album back up

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Cool, glad Sly did so well

who the fuck voted for 'light my fire'???

DJP?

Don't all be boring and vote for the title track plz

― It's Pablum Time with (NickB), Thursday, 10 April 2014 14:11 (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just bein real

surprised Sly did so well! I thought it was one of those first album singles which are fairly big at the moment but that no one remembers years down the line.

there's such a distinctive hush over this entire album

you know what rules, is No Protection

Heh, seriously.

Would've voted for 'Karmacoma', I think, but I haven't heard this album in like 15 years.

does anyone know the story behind Vivien Goldman's writing credit on "Sly"?

From this piece by Goldman:

Years later, after the band had released Blue Lines and were preparing the album that became Protection, I visited Bristol to collaborate with them, eventually co-writing the track "Sly." Sample-based songwriting in those pre-digital days could be laborious. I bought a child's Casio keyboard to help fill the gaps, which came in handy for "Sly," but the process often involved someone getting on their bike and cycling down to the second-hand record shop to try and locate half-remembered grooves that might be just right to fulfill the elusive conception of a song.