"Protection" was featured in the top ten of "Rolling Stone" magazine's 'Coolest Albums of All Time List,' calling it "great music for when you're driving around a city at 4 am," due to the 'chill out' nature of the album. Like most of Massive Attack's albums, the music often forgets about categorisation, ranging from R&B (title track, Sly) to hip hop/rap (Karmacoma, Eurochild) to reggae-tinged synthpop (Spying Glass) to classical-influenced electronica instrumentals (Weather Storm, Heat Miser).