Album Review: Tricky - False Idols

Tricky
False Idols
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

Ever since he exploded onto the music scene with his brilliant debut album Maxinquaye, Tricky has done almost everything he can to distance himself from that album's distinctive and influential style. He moved to a more harder edge sound for subsequent records like Pre-Millenial Tension and Angels With Dirty Faces before almost completely forsaking his initial sound for more rap/hip-hop inspired forays and then alt-rock hybrids that never truly suited him. These post-90s records were never all out embarrassments, however, they did nothing but stall what was once considered a formidable force in the music world. After Angels With Dirty Faces, Tricky's albums were all considered (mostly by Tricky himself) to be his best record/return-to-form/masterpiece that ended up merely being words, the music not powerful enough to back up those claims. By 2008's Knowle West Boy, I basically tuned out the chatter for the records and just remembered the old Tricky, who was able to back up his big mouth with truly phenomenal music. So, with the release of his latest record False Idols, Tricky once again took to the press to announce this as being even better than Maxinquaye. Is it? Sadly no, but it is definitely his most cohesive and most interesting record since Angels With Dirty Faces.

Finally stopping his trend of making music that doesn't fit his personality, Tricky returns to his more atmospheric side, blending his dark beats with sinister electronics, strings, and textured guitars. Instead of trying to beat you senseless with an all-out sonic attack, Tricky lets silence and mood take over, with an overarching sense of dread and claustrophobia taking over. The worst you can say about some of these tracks are that they need to be fleshed out more. There are only a couple of skippable tracks among the 15 included here, which, on the basis of his last records, is a monumental improvement. While this record hearkens back to his Maxinquaye sound, Tricky almost appears hesitant and unsure here at times, not allowing that reckless sense of danger that permeated that landmark record take over. This prevents the album from really taking off, though it shows flashes of the cocksure brilliance Tricky showed early on in his career.

The album takes awhile to find its footing, making some missteps here and there, but towards the end of the record the pace hits its stride with some of Tricky's most ominous and strident tracks. "Does It" bludgeons with a dark as soot bassline and Middle Eastern musical accents, with Tricky speak-singing his words along with his latest breathy muse Francesca Belmonte;



percussion heavy "I'm Ready" drips with odd electronics and a sense of unease and dread; "Hey Love" heavily samples the synth riff from Japan's hit single "Ghosts" to create a twitchy vibe,



while closing track "Passion of the Christ" borrows motifs from "Does It" but smudges it heavily with booming drums and sampled/manipulated church bells.



These tracks show that Tricky still is very much in control of his vision, it is only where he seems hesitant or unsure does the record falter. Tracks like "If I Only Knew" and "Chinese Interlude" smack of trip-hop lite and stick out too much like sore thumbs in the mix. While he gets a little too mired in his alt-rock fixation on a track like "Is That Your Life" or lets his experimentation get too out of control as on the all-atmosphere of "Tribal Drums." The remaining tracks are all really good Tricky songs but just seem to lack that extra energy that permeated his best work, and which informs the back half of the record. With that said, it is hard to really argue much with the beauty of tracks like "Nothing's Changed," a reworking of his classic track "Makes Me Wanna Die,"



the slow-build of "Nothing Matters,"



or the trip-hop beats and languid guitars of "Bonnie and Clyde."



Despite Tricky's bold claims that this is better than Maxinquaye, False Idols is far short of that goal, but is still a step in the right direction, playing to Tricky's strengths rather than trying to make a square peg fit in a round hole. I am hoping that Tricky no longer feels like he has to run away from the sound that made him a success in the first place and will get him back to making the music that he is so good at making. Despite a few missteps on the album, False Idols is an extremely welcome return to form for the trip-hop master.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.