I’ve always loved Tricky. A true maverick/lunatic/genius. Take your pick. I like how his music is slightly out of sync, his lyrics and vocals quietly menacing and quite disturbing. This song includes Martina Topley-Bird, a schoolgirl he spotted near his studio, that became his partner and they later tragically lost their daughter.
It’s not an easy listen unless you’re particularly unhinged. It always feels like he leaves stuff in that most producers would cut out. Just his breathing and sighing on the first album adds to the intense atmosphere. That clanking high piano towards the end of this is like a jailer rattling a set of keys, the devil himself coming for your soul. It ramps up the tension to an almost unbearable level (cue some smart arse agreeing).
You probably know the backstory of him coming from a criminal family in the notorious Knowle West area of Bristol, his mother’s suicide (debut album Maxinquaye named after her), thinking he was the devil, getting half-heartedly involved in Massive Attack and then binning it off to do his own thing. Imagine being so cool you can’t be arsed being in Massive Attack … or there must’ve been some particularly potent strain of weed in Bristol at that time.
In today’s sanitised music industry, the drama and darkness of the music, reflecting that of his life, have always made him stand out. I could have chosen a number of tracks, but this seems to encompass a bit of all the stuff mentioned above that first hooked me in and that first album still stands up with any of his work since. Not sure ‘enjoy’ is the right word to sign off with; maybe just ‘appreciate’ or ‘endure’. ‘Essential’ is another one as far as I’m concerned.