Tricky‘s new album Vulnerable is the best thing he’s done in quite some time, I think. Dark, twisted lyrics, vocals by Costanza (whoever she is, she’s the best female vocalist Tricky has worked with since Martina–Tricky is once more in touch with his feminine side, as he was not in his last few post-Martina releases, as Charles Mudede has twice noted), and a variety of musical styles from almost-r&b to almost-metal (but the metal sound works here as it did not on Tricky’s previous album Blowback). Under it all, a more driving rhythm than in any of Tricky’s previous albums, though these songs are mostly too depressing to dance to. In a way, Vulnereable could almost be seen as an attempted mainstream move on Tricky’s part, in the way he seems to have abandoned for good the avant-garde fragmentation of his earlier work like Pre-Millennium Tension (still my absolute favorite among his albums) in favor of a more commercial sound. But what’s great about Vulnerable is how he manipulates, twists, and perverts that sound, so that even the (originally fairly downbeat) songs he covers on this album, by XTC (!!) and The Cure (!!!) seem negatively, malevolently transfigured by the treatment Tricky gives them, Vulnerable shows Tricky at his almost-best, and it’s about time.
Tricky – Vulnerable
Tricky‘s new album Vulnerable is the best thing he’s done in quite some time, I think. Dark, twisted lyrics, vocals by Costanza (whoever she is, she’s the best female vocalist Tricky has worked with since Martina–Tricky is once more in touch with his feminine side, as he was not in his last few post-Martina releases, as Charles Mudede has twice noted), and a variety of musical styles from almost-r&b to almost-metal (but the metal sound works here as it did not on Tricky’s previous album Blowback). Under it all, a more driving rhythm than in any of Tricky’s previous albums, though these songs are mostly too depressing to dance to. In a way, Vulnereable could almost be seen as an attempted mainstream move on Tricky’s part, in the way he seems to have abandoned for good the avant-garde fragmentation of his earlier work like Pre-Millennium Tension (still my absolute favorite among his albums) in favor of a more commercial sound. But what’s great about Vulnerable is how he manipulates, twists, and perverts that sound, so that even the (originally fairly downbeat) songs he covers on this album, by XTC (!!) and The Cure (!!!) seem negatively, malevolently transfigured by the treatment Tricky gives them, Vulnerable shows Tricky at his almost-best, and it’s about time.