Maxinquaye [PA] by Tricky

Pros: Great production, interesting concepts, some good songs...
Cons: Some uninspired and pretentious songs...

Often cited as one of the most gifted artists and producers of contemporary electronica and trip-hop, native Englishman Tricky (nee Adrian Thaws) has in the course of eight solo years made a massive impression on the world of music on the whole. Of cours ...

Pros: When it works, it's the epitome of what trip-hop was all about.
Cons: Sometimes the studio tricks and the songwriting fail to come together.

While we're on a trip-hop kick, we might as well talk about Tricky. He is by default the high priest of the genre now that Massive Attack and Portishead have respectively lost their vision and faded into no man's land. And this, my friends, is the album ...

Pros: Production, Arrangements, Samples, Lyrics, Tone, & Vocals, notably Topley-Bird.
Cons: None.

Coming from the Bristol scene of the early 90s, Adrian Thaws aka Tricky was part of the Wild Bunch production collective that would later spawn the group known as Massive Attack. In 1991, Tricky contributed raps to Massive Attack's 1991 seminal debut ...

Pros: Powerful, Martina's vocals are incredible; Tricky's are awfully powerful.
Cons: May be too dark for some.

As ironic as it sounds, darkness is my light. Happiness and glow seems to always leave a bad taste in my mouth, yet the grim and depressing constantly leaves me abundantly satisfied and fulfilled. I leave the dark feeling changed, whether it be minutely...

Pros: Intimate confessions, radical agenda
Cons: Very, very dark.

Adrian Thaws (Tricky) is reputed to be the most difficult man in modern music, a primadonna whose endless consumption of skunk weed has left him moody, aggressive and deeply paranoid. Indeed, those are the feelings to be found on "Maxinquaye,"...

Pros: Excellent sound, creativity
Cons: Borrowed a Portishead beat in track 4

When I first heard Tricky's take on Public Enemy's "Black Steel" back in 1995, I was blown away. It wasn't often in those days that I'd go out and buy a CD on the strength of one song (they were the lean college years and money was tight). But...

Pros: restrained, sexual, without a single missed track, or beat for that matter
Cons: tricky's voice can get on your nerves. the whole thing is very brooding.

It took me a while to understand what is happening on Tricky's "Maxinquaye". The album is touted to be the perfection of trip-hop. However, I don't think that any single genre can define the music here.

The term...

Pros: Best Album
Cons: none whatsoever

Having bought Tricky's Pre Millenium Tension album first and loving it, imagine my surprise when i bought Maxinquaye and found it was even better...

A sensual blend of women's voices - from alluring in 'Overcome' to child-like in 'Ponderosa',...