Bought this when it first came out... having had Maxinquaye a while and loving it. Was kinda disappointed to be honest... wasn't grabbed straight away. Now it's 2007 and I have five albums by Tricky - this is probably my second favourite. That's not to say the others are bad, it's just that this album has really grown on me over time.
You just know that there's a lot of depression and drugs involved in what Tricky gets up to... you can imagine him in some dive somewhere in Bristol, lying on a stained couch, with smoke all around him... scribbling quick witty lines onto a crumpled piece of paper - well, I can anyway... hell, he might have an Apple Mac to write his lyrics and music on, but somehow I doubt it.
Tricky Kid is the stand-out track for me on this album - as always you get a bit of Tricky with a bit of some other people, some you might know if you're a big fan, but suffice to say, they're always picked well. This track has someone called "D" on it (dunno who that is, don't care) but it's brilliant... Tricky's just banging on, singing away, and this D character is getting all visceral and just shouting into the microphone in some kind of manic challenge... "Tell me where you're at, baby!" and then.... "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" as loud as you like - delicious.
I also like Makes Me Wanna Die... doesn't depress me at all, I like this singer a lot (don't even think Tricky makes an appearance on this track apart from the odd whisper), one who appears on a lot of Tricky stuff I think. Ghetto Youth is good as well. Hell, I call myself some kind of fan - not really - I just like the music and this album comes with a firm thumbs-up recommendation from me.