Rage – barely-contained or (more usually) not contained at all – has been a constant in Tricky's music ever since his seminal 1995 debut Maxinquaye. But since at least 2008, when he released Knowle West Boy with its rap metal-flavoured lead single Council Estate, he has often heightened the sense of anger by adding a punk dynamic to his music too.
For his 13th album, recorded in Berlin and Moscow, the endlessly restless Bristolian reins that all in to great effect for a set of songs which burst into flames only occasionally but which are otherwise spare and sparse and (whisper it) almost peaceful. Sure there's a cover of Doll Parts by Hole, featuring Avalon Lurks on vocals, but its gently-strummed acoustic guitar is perfectly in keeping with much of the rest of the album. The Only Way takes a slow-mo, Portishead-style chord progression and adds a Rhodes piano line straight out of the Air songbook (the French band, not the 1970s free jazz outfit), and there's another nod to the 1990s in the shape of former partner Martina Topley-Bird, who supplies vocals on When We Die.
Other guests include wild child actress Asia Argento and Kazakh rapper Scriptonite, though the standout track is the rhapsodic, bass-heavy New Stole, a collaboration with Italian singer Francesca Belmonte.
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