A good while back I reviewed Wet Cookies’ Earthling’ album. It was instrumental Nujazz in the vein with touches of Weather Report and Bitches Brew’ era Miles Davis. It was a positive review, even though not the kind of music we here at Chain D.L.K. usually groove to. I guess that’s why they sent me Soul Protection’ to review. That was a mistake. This is hard right turn for this outfit; dubby soul jazz with vocals on every track. What a disappointment. I can’t fault the playing or singers (for what it is, it is spot-on) but I had hoped Wet Cookies might go further out on the edge rather than take a much more commercial tack that caters to a whole different audience. I doesn’t help that I don’t particularly care for soul-jazz. Some of these tracks sound like the stuff on the This Is Acid Jazz’ series that I always skipped over. The arrangements and performances are good; it’s the material that lacks. I don’t think the world needs another version of "Word Up" either. For those that may into this sort of thing, vocalists include Betty Semper, Ken Boothe, Hubert Tubbs, Abisara, Ruffina Frontin, and Ola Egbowon. Two bright spots on the album are the sans vocals dub versions of "Something’s Changing" and "Unwind," primarily because there are no vocals. Still, I don’t think this album can hold a candle to Earthling’ but that was the group’s choice, and Soul Protection’ will probably sell better than their previous effort did.