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Big Album Bake Off #3: Dummy Vs Protection

Which is the better album?

  • Total voters
    27
  • Poll closed .
Between late '94 and about '97, Dummy seemed to be played at every damn dinner party I ever went to, and I hated dinner parties. So even though I liked all of the songs, I developed a creeping hatred of the album (I exaggerate, of course).

As Sean says, Maxinquaye was the great album of that genre (partly because it wasn't genreable).

Kemistry and Storm and Grooverider's sets at Metalheadz blew all that louche lounge music into oblivion anyway.
 
Elephantears said:
Between late '94 and about '97, Dummy seemed to be played at every damn dinner party I ever went to, and I hated dinner parties. So even though I liked all of the songs, I developed a creeping hatred of the album (I exaggerate, of course).
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For me, around the same time, it was Moby, Play.
 
Putting aside my feelings about the appropriation of gothic for dinner parties, I've been streaming 'Dummy' and remembering what a unique album it is. It's strange that something so dark became so overplayed at that time in the 90s. 'Biscuit' is probably the song that gets to me the most now.
 
Ive had a rubbish day at work today, but that has cheered me up.

Proper funny.

They're probably just thinking "move over and give us some room, y-e-a-h" .
 
windhoek said:
It just so happens that Dummy features in this BBC article on '11 classic albums that defined 1994.'
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Out of those 11 classic albums listed from 1994 I have 3 of them , purchased at the time. The Prodigy / Portishead but the one I respect and still get a massive buzz from is 'The Holy Bible' - Manic Street Preachers,
one of my all time favourites.
A while ago I printed out all the lyrics to read along as I listened, the lyrics are quite something. An amazing piece of work.
 
I’ve got all of them. My 1994 must have been particularly well defined. Good to see the Orbital album in there, IIRC it was somewhat overlooked both at the time and subsequently.
 
Dummy hangs together better than Protection.

However, if you were to compare debut albums, Massive Attack has an easy win.

Few things were as sudden and sad, musically, as Massive Attack’s decline. From their first album to their third (putting aside the No Protection coda) was a casebook declension into tedium and obsolescence. By Mezzanine they were starting to resemble Pink Floyd, which is an awful thing to say of anyone.

Still, that first album, the knockout singles/b-sides of the time, No Protection, and the adjunctive Maxinquaye add up, together, to a small body of recordings comfortably better than most.

Blue Line’s Five Man Army remains a particular kind of perfection:

 
I remember hearing about some guy called Tricky going solo at the time (I didn't discover Massive Attack till '97) and I think I gave his music a cursory listen a few years ago. But spurred on by the comments in this thread, I bought Maxinquaye from HMV when I was in town earlier... and first impressions are, the more I hear the more I like it.

It ain't no Protection, but I think it'll be staying in my collection all the same.
 
windhoek said:
I remember hearing about some guy called Tricky going solo at the time (I didn't discover Massive Attack till '97) and I think I gave his music a cursory listen a few years ago. But spurred on by the comments in this thread, I bought Maxinquaye from HMV when I was in town earlier... and first impressions are, the more I hear the more I like it.

It ain't no Protection, but I think it'll be staying in my collection all the same.
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Tricky was flavour of the month for a while ( a bit like Goldie) and turned up in The Fifth Element (film) -
from memory I got Maxinquaye at the time expecting it to be more like Massive Attack, but it has a harder sound.

'Black Steel' is the memorable tune, I haven't played it for years.
 
neildalton said:
Few things were as sudden and sad, musically, as Massive Attack’s decline. From their first album to their third (putting aside the No Protection coda) was a casebook declension into tedium and obsolescence. By Mezzanine they were starting to resemble Pink Floyd, which is an awful thing to say of anyone.
Click to expand...

I like all the first three albums but view Mezzanine as the high water mark! I love that album, a wonderfully dark dubby powerful visceral thing that almost channels ‘70s electric Miles. After that point there was very obvious decline, but Mezzanine is my most played Massive Attack album by far.
 
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