Best Tricky Album Poll

Maxinquaye, definitely if predictably. PMT was when he started raging, eg Vent, which I blame on his love of average 90s alt-rock, although it's still two-thirds genius. Nearly God only works half the time, but when it does it's phenomenal - recently became obsessed with Martina's cover of Black Coffee, with its piano chords of doom. Angels is still too much like hard work though I admire the sticky, corrupted swamp-blues vibe. Juxtapose has some great tunes but no atmosphere and - an enduring handicap - no Martina. Blowback is an intermittently inspired lucky dip. Vulnerable is boring as hell. Knowle West Boy is a step in the right direction. Maxinquaye's the only one that grips me from start to finish. I remember being blown away by Aftermath, even moreso by Ponderosa, and counting the days till the album came out.

'vent' is pretty incredible though, the paranoia has a real focus there. and it's about a girl who's stealing his asthma medicine! martina's echoing vox work so well - "i'm the one/who steals his ventolin" - will also rep for 'tricky kid', 'christiansands', 'lyrics of fury' and at least a couple more from PMT.

my fav thing on nearly god is 'i be the prophet', so stately and scary. i'm v attached to that album. how out of place is the weirdly jaunty neneh cherry track which reappeared on her album a year later! and how weird that a track like 'poems' reached the top 30.

i mean yeah maxinquaye is the best but i think i should vote for one of those two.

the only other ones i've heard all the way thru are blowback - better than i was expecting! cd is long lost (tho) - and knowle west boy - RETURN TO FORM! trumpeted the press release. it was fucking abysmal.

True. The PMT tracks you mention are all phenomenal, as are Makes Me Wanna Die and Bad Dream. It's just a notch below Maxinquaye for me.

Just listening to Bad Dream now. The way Martina says "What can I say? I was having a fucked up day" in this completely callous, dead-eyed way - wow.

my favorite songs are on Juxtapose (eg. 'For Real') but it's true that it lacks sth as an album.

the grooves on maxinquaye seem a bit ramshackle compared to PMT. everything seems more fuller and better developed on PMT. i dont mind the rage. agree with lex, it had a focus and wasnt just for its own sake. i dont know if i still have it on tape but there was a concert c4 showed around the time of pmt that was amazing.

there's quite a lot of shit on PMT too (tho) - can't remember exactly what b/c for the past decade i've only cherrypicked the tracks i like off it

could never decide whether its cover was great or hideous, either

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Bk-wO-1564s/SZCW7rSF0yI/AAAAAAAAAj0/3eg-1H-Mbuk/s400/1996premillenniumtensioyw2.jpg

it took me a really long time to notice what he did there on the cover - when I did it went from great to hideous

same here. but this is worse -
http://theruffdraft.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/durrty-goodz-ultrasound-2009.jpg

this is so not a contest

Maxinquay>>Nearly God>Angels with Dirty Faces>>>>>>>>>PMT>>>>>>> the rest.

Maxinquaye, but "Poems," the Alison Moyet tune, "For Real," and "She Said" are all brilliant.

Just listening to Bad Dream now. The way Martina says "What can I say? I was having a fucked up day" in this completely callous, dead-eyed way - wow.

wow yes. just going back to it now and this is incredible.

this is also the perfect album for being ill to.

PMT for me without question. Not only is it more focused than Maxinquaye, it's also more consistent - all the songs sound like part of one album. The only track I still listen to off Maxinquaye is "Hell is Around the Corner." Never liked Angels with Dirty Faces, never heard Nearly God, and everything since Juxtapose (which is funny in a pissed-off-nerd-hits-the-strip-club kind of way) has been crap. Knowle West Boy was one of the worst albums of last year.

first inclination was maxinquaye but i haven't heard PMT in a long time, seems to me tho right now to be the more interesting one. need to give it a listen. i remember tho there are some incredible tracks on PMT

PMT falls apart in its second half, despite the ace Eric B & Rakim cover. Otherwise the Vent-Christiansands-Tricky Kid-Bad Dream-Makes Me Wanna Die whammy is the best music of his career.

I agree with Alfred; this was a cd I got used to programming in my own sequence. I vote for PMT anyway, because Maxinquaye seems to me to fall off in the same way, and PMT's first half is stronger.

just relistened to PMT for the first time in ages and it's really just the middle that falls apart - the dodgy sex drive/bad things section. it closes strongly, 'piano' is kinda beautiful esp after the claustrophobia which has preceded it.

I can't imagine NOT voting for Maxinquaye. PMT and Nearly God are great but COME ON.

Point taken about the swampy vibe of AWDF, but, boy, is that album a drag. Juxtapose's "For Real" condenses forty minutes of experiments into one giant guitar and sitar hook.

PMT>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Maxinquaye

maxinquaye, probably just cuz it's the first. pmt is tougher and more focused, but i like the haziness of maxinquaye. love them both, tho.

If this poll renders any answer other than Maxinquaye, I'm afraid I'm going to have to call the fearsome Logic Gestapo to come and execute everyone responsible.

The Japanese vinyl edition of Maxinquaye has a cover of Heart's "Alone," Alex! Did you know?

ha

PMT

PMT = just the right mix of ominous agitation & pop sense/groove/accessibility

"'piano' is kinda beautiful esp after the claustrophobia which has preceded it."

best track on the album by some distance.

Sympathetic to all the pro PMT/Nearly God arguments here, but reluctantly gotta say Maxinquaye. Less for the (yes, fantastic) singles and more for the amazing tracks buried near the end of the album - "You Don't" and "Feed Me".

listened to pmt again last night. its still the best one. maxinquaye i think people will go for as its more 'important', the 'first', and reps a certain era more than pmt, but trickys production got a lot better after his debut. pmts thicker/'phatter'/funkier and like someone said upthread, more consistent and cohesive as an album. maxinquaye has dated a bit more too. the only track i dont like too much on pmt is makes me wanna die just cos theres times where it feels like the vocals are slightly out of key.

according to wikipedia, max went to no 3 in the uk charts, but pmt only got to 30. angels and juxtapose both went higher!

I think I like PMT best because it has the same ugly vibe as There's a Riot Goin' On.

no qualms whatsoever with Maxinquaye production. practically perfect (murky samples and all).

I am voting Maxinquaye almost solely because "Overcome" is my favorite Tricky song by a ludicrously wide margin.

pmts just denser overall, which i tend to like in any album.

Ooh, haven't heard this in years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_khmSBRpkY8

I really really miss the tapes I used to have of a couple of Tricky shows from early 97. They're the only 2 tapes I miss out of the 1000s I had, and I've never seen the recordings online anywhere. Full of stuff like this, anyway.

For some reason Maxinquaye has never clicked for me but the Vent-Christiansands-Tricky Kid-Bad Dream-Makes Me Wanna Die whammy is the best music of his career rings totally true for me

Thanks to this poll, I've got "For Real" on my iPod. Tricky is the only guy whose wow-I'm-famous ruminations totally fascinate me.

Another PMT vote here. I like Maxinquaye OK, and the cover of Cold Steel was the track that got me to pay attention to Tricky. But I started listening to him after PMT had come out, so I didn't experience Maxinquaye as something unprecedented, and emotionally for me PMT was the more compelling album, even if it has a drowsy stretch in the second half (as many have noticed). Now that Tricky is irrelevant, PMT is the only one I ever listen to. Yes, the first five track sequence is amazing, as is Piano.

There are parts of Vulnerable that I really like, too. As a whole, it's boring, but there was a great EP buried in there.

This thread is very comforting. I thought I was the only person in the world who never got why Maxinquaye was so much better than PMT.

The PMT cover art is truly horrendous.

its nice if you dont actually look at it carefully which is what i did for years.

nice to see so many pmt fans though. does anyone remember the channel 4 docu on tricky? i used to have on audio tape several live tracks from there (i think, though that might have been another concert show on tv, not sure now) that were superb. he made the studio-live transition so well.

Don't know about Channel 4, but the first time I heard Tricky it was a "Sessions on 54th Street" (?) show on PBS. Tricky, Martine, and band, around the time Pre-Millenium Tension came out. On a double bill with Ani Difranco. They did Cold Steel, Christiansands, and I don't remember what else, but I was transfixed. I spent several years chasing trip-hop before that enthusiasm ran out.

I select Maxinquaye partially because I bought it the week it came out due to me loving Tricky on Massive Attack's first album (for some reason, I hadn't heard Protection; probably I was annoyed that Shara Nelson didn't sing everything on it and pointedly ignored it). Hearing "Overcome" for the first time completely blind to "Karmacoma" was an absolutely flooring experience; I knew the song had to be a reinterpretation of shared lyrics but I really wasn't expecting the raw sexual power of that beat. To this day, I think that is one of the lustiest, most carnal songs I own (and I do think "Karmacoma" sounds kind of fussy and silly in comparison).

When the rest of the album continued to get better and better, I was completely hooked. Pre-Millenium Tension is a great album but came nowhere near the impact of Maxinquaye (or Nearly God) on me.

Here's a couple of those West 54th performances mentioned upthread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RVObkXuZ-U&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBpSJ-Lt94A

if anyone has that shepherds bush concert from 1997 (i googled and apparently it was shown right after the docu) i would be most grateful.

Anyone care to explain me what the chorus of Christiansands means? I get the rest of the song is breaking down a relationship but I have never been able to make sense of the chorus within the context of the song.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I think I like PMT best because it has the same ugly vibe as There's a Riot Goin' On.

I didn't know about that, is there an uglier vibe than "Nearly God?"

It's an ugly (but very great) drug album.

I did go back and listen to PMT again and it's much better than I remember. The second half is still a bit puzzling, but in a way that makes me want to listen more. First half is on the level of Maxinquaye

I’m repeating myself but “Nearly God” has “Poems” which might just be the best track Tricky has ever made.

Yeah that's really great. It is a particular mood as you seem to be saying Moka (I'm appreciating it as the days get darker earlier). There is almost no drop-off from Maxinquaye at all on these records and I'm struggling to think of a British artist who put out this much great-to-good music in such a short period. Maybe Aphex when he was churning them out.

*in the 90s anyway..

This was a good review of his recently released autobiog..

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/10/so-this-is-the-aftermath

I'm ready to dive back in his previous albums too, on the back of the new one, which is great in an understated kind of way.

Ty for that link alphie.

Just found out about this sort of prose poem David Bowie wrote in 1995 for Q magazine about Tricky.

http://www.moon-palace.de/tricky/q95.html

Nearly God his must fully realized project imo

Apparently he has a full chapter of him and bowie in his book, I might need to buy it.

Apparently he has a full chapter of him and bowie in his book, I might need to buy and read that one.

have never once heard someone say "i'm loving PMT, especially the second half." haha. maybe i too should give it a relisten.

The first half of Angels With Dirty Faces is pretty good too, but boy, does that drop off. He really should've kept some of Maxinquaye back for the latter albums.

Started reading the book, it’s a pretty interesting read so far. Tricky comes off as a very tragic figure, starting right off with his mother’s suicide.

He comes off as unnecessarily feisty in some situations and also a bit of a narcissist, but he’s also pretty self-aware about his music and knows his discography is filled with dead ends and experimental failures.

I’m only 1/5 in but would definitely recommend for fans of Tricky and the music industry in the 90s.

Nearly God's oppressive whispering sound is fairly prescient of the whole ASMR/electronic pop sound used today.

Yes!

But I always think both Nearly God and PMT feel *remarkably* current, like insanely so. I remember a day around 2019 where I played nothing but those and Yves Tumor and it all connected.

coke in your nose

I’m repeating myself but “Nearly God” has “Poems” which might just be the best track Tricky has ever made.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, October 14, 2020 12:17 AM

otm

Both of those songs were remarkably top 30 hits here. Purely fanbase-driven sales but still, what clout.

PMT would have been my answer for the poll. One of my 100 favourite albums ever by anyone I think

Maxinquaye was kind of understated, but felt like an earthquake at the time, and Pre-Millennium Tension and Nearly God built on that sound. All of them are great albums

currently... pretty obsessed with juxtapose

idk, let's see what every tricky album is like, who cares, i like everything i've heard and i feel like i hear more of what i like about contemporary music in his less-heard albums than in anything else

Juxtapose is amazing yes, esp “Contradictive” and “Hot Like a Sauna”

I liked Juxtapose, but checked out after that.

Sometimes "For Real" is my favorite Tricky song.

I got into Tricky's music seeing him at Lollapalooza and odd enough I saw him live a couple times within the next couple years. Once in Indianapolis at the Vogue and then once in this really weird club that was like in an old grocery store on Cincinnati's west side. The bass in his sound system for the two club dates was just outrageous, easily one of the more unique shows for that alone.

Relistening now and I feel like my above post was inadvertently dishonest just for singling out any particular tracks. I feel like this album is his most successful in (the specific sense of) setting up a sustained mood.

been making my way through the discog. i don't think i was aware of how much the red hot chili peppers were involved in blowback. weird, ungainly record. vulnerable is the more tasteful of the two, i think to its detriment. i really liked knowle west boy, enjoyed mixed race and false idols (the latter of which is considered a late career high... it's good, for sure, but not sure i'm entirely grabbed by it) but adrian thaws is outright blowing me away. no one liked this one at all? the alice in chains sample that "keep me in your shake" is built around is perfect

Tricky's coming out as a fan of contemporaneous American modern rock in the last two decades is charming!

Hardly “coming out” when “Pumpkin” was built around a sample from Gish and flaunted the source in the track title.

A sample's one thing, using Ed Kowalczyk, Alanis Morissette, and the Chili Peppers on new tracks is another.

Ivy’s review of Is This Desire for P4K reminded me of being 13 and reading a profile of PJ Harvey in The Face in 1995 which breathlessly relayed that the only picture on the wall at Tricky’s place was a poster of PJ Harvey.

And that is how I got into both artists.

(also I was a Bjork fan and I’m pretty sure that at about this time I drew a mind map which identified all the artists she had a putative connection with and tracked them down one by one)

...and Madonna's "Bedtime Stories" as another nexus.

It blew my mind when I learned how far the "Bristol" sound spiraled. I think I learned about Neneh Cherry's part only about 20 years ago.

Did we ever get the other tracks Tricky did with Neneh?

new album is phenomenal? i wasn't expecting art rock but it's insanely lovely

Yeah I love this!

Then again, trip hop artists making art-rock albums is one of my favourite sub-genres (see: Third, Blank Project).

Blank Project? Third? I'm in.

I'd hesitated b/c one of my subgroups was holding its nose last week.

I liked it on first listen, had no familiarity with Mitch Sanders. Is he a known quantity or is this a step up for him? His voice works well on the tracks.

I've played it through three times now -- really enjoy it. weirdly a great summer album even though there's a sort of claustrophic vibe to me

Feel like claustrophic vibe is kind of Tricky's DNA.

oh totally I just mean it still sort of has a cool summery feeling to me somehow

Yeah it’s got a southern gothic vibe to it - dark but warm, the claustrophobia of a dense garden at night

how is this album so good (because tricky’s a genius duh). just adding to the chorus above really

Agree there is some torpor for sure. On next time thru the songs that jumped out the most were “So Cold,” “Marinade,” “Radana” and “Hengrove Blues.” They’re all of a piece though.

I really have not listened to any new Tricky in years, probably I’ve been missing out.

"Frontier Town" sounds like it's about turn into Glass Animals' "Heat Waves."

A lot of the recent albums with Marta have been really good too.

The prevalence of falsetto wears on me after a while but that's a personal tic.

Paris Maybe has crazy hooks and somehow sounds very 2026 and very 90s at the same time

for anyone else wondering, his new album is called Different When It's Silent

amazing show last night, so glad i finally saw him. he'd been in silhouette under dim blue lights for maybe the first half of the show, and hearing the merest crackle of his voice around the edges of Marta's was thrilling. so when he finally sang lead with this sudden cathartic intensity, swinging a mic in each hand as if maybe one will catch his words, then one mic placed on his chest making the vocals shockingly clear, and bright lights lit up the whole room for a split second... the drama and tempo of the slow then quick reveal was incredible. and then the process sorta repeated, in an even starker variation.

I saw him last week, it was pretty amazing. he's so intense