Maxinquaye With only a sample from Isaac Hayes' "Ike's Mood" on "Hell is Around the Corner" to anchor the listener, Tricky's debut is an unforgettable headf*ck. Leaving the singing to Martina, he lurks like a phantom on his own album amid junkyard clattering and even thrash metal ("Black Steel"). Bizarrely, people adored it.
Nearly God The anti-Blowback. Having already shared his androgynous persona with collaborator Martina, the many sides of Tricky slip out of focus on this dank howl against success, with the help of guests like Neneh Cherry and the Specials' Terry Hall singing songs by Siouxsie & the Banshees and Depeche Mode. Odd.
Pre-Millenium Tension In case nobody got his point on Nearly God, Tricky relocated to Jamaica and with some help from Elvis Costello (that's him on "Piano"), created a work that was both unbearably beautiful (the ballad "Makes Me Wanna Die") and sometimes just unbearable (the aural asthma attack of "Vent"). Perhaps his best.
Angels With Dirty Faces There's the occasional song ("Broken Homes") and something that resembles a track-listing, but Angels is really a 50-minute blackout where voices fade in and out of hearing and Tricky plays the conductor to an orchestra of deranged guitar noise and clumpy funk. Worth sticking with, but really, dare you?
Juxtapose Tricky now claims to despise this record, which tried to strike a middle ground between a dream team-up with DJ Muggs and making hits. Even at a half-hour, this still flashes with wit ("I Like the Girls"), hooks ("Hot Like a Sauna"), and the hip-hop aesthetic he's always tried to be a part of.
Blowback The true genius of Blowback is that steamroller single "Evolution Revolution Love" drags behind it prime Tricky madness-cum-foolery: covers of the Wonder Woman theme and Nirvana, perverted love songs like "You Don't Wanna," and on "Bury the Evidence," something scarier than Eminem ever dreamt of.
