Tricky!

Glyph

Glyph is worse than some and better than others. He believes that life is just one damned thing after another, that only pop music can save us now, and that mercy is the mark of a great man (but he's just all right). Nothing he writes here should be taken as an indication that he knows anything about anything.

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6 Responses

  1. dhex says:

    briefly breaking exile to confess that i like pre-millenial tension more than maxinquaye. it feels much more complete, and tricky grew into himself as a lyricist. even the stab at goldie doesn’t feel too dumb.

    and then the wheels came off sometime after ’96.

    his current stuff is not particularly notable.Report

    • Chris in reply to dhex says:

      Pre-Millenial Tension… ah, before we had to deal with so many beards, twirled mustaches, and snow boots in July.

      (Also, I like the second album better too.)Report

    • Jaybird in reply to dhex says:

      I have that album in my car right now. The beat behind Christiansands is something I could have playing 24/7.Report

    • Glyph in reply to dhex says:

      and then the wheels came off sometime after ’96.

      I was talking to my brother who made a very similar observation, and told him that after reading the Saunders piece, I started to suspect that Tricky may be just too scattered and disorganized to keep it together, and those first couple records might have been a case of right place/time/collaborators?

      Of course I also rate Timeless as a classic, and it’s not like Goldie was really able to move forward from there either. So maybe the same thing (or maybe just another classic case of “the drugs help, until they don’t”).

      Speaking of Goldie, Tricky, and “keeping it together”, I think it’s interesting that Bjork, who I think is in some ways a reasonable modern analogue of Bowie (as far as quickly picking up on currents in the avant garde, and translating those to pop), had both Tricky and Goldie as muses/lovers, in a way that we are much more accustomed to seeing men do with women. And she just kept on moving forward like a shark – not that she hasn’t had any potential missteps or weird detours, but she has a drive and a focus; she’s mostly kept it together (again like Bowie).

      I plan on revisiting Pre-Millenium Tension soon. All I really remember from it is “Christiansands”.Report