Tricky – Adrian Thaws

Adrian Thaws is, of course, Tricky’s real name. But don’t expect this album to reveal anything new about the Knowle West boy. Rather, Adrian Thaws is undeniably Tricky with all his trademark feverish whispers and ominous storytelling but it’s also his most cogent and focused album in years. Taking the unabashed hunger and rawness of last year’s False Idols, Adrian Thaws is a strikingly immediate, often abrasive album, which traverses the club and electronic influences over the course of his career.

Sounding sleekly modern rather than desperately modish, Tricky’s lyrical flourishes, touching upon political unrest (“My Palestine baby, I go to Gaza because it’s really love I’m after”) and vituperative ripostes (“Why don’t you… go and get fucked” repeats the chorus of Why Don’t You) can run a little glib, but the album shines amid the breathless female-male vocal interplay of I Had A Dream, the minimalist synth basslines and electro flourishes on lead single Nicotine Dream and the bare-faced swagger of Lonnie Listen. [Colm McAuliffe]