Blowback

Adrian Thaws revolutionised music nearly a decade ago as the darkest and most fascinating architect of trip-hop, seamlessly fusing claustrophobic urban isolation-scapes with sheet-metal guitars and jagged hip-hop arrhythmia, resulting in a kind of fractured, unbearably bleak yet transcendental ghetto poetry. But Tricky’s a smart kid, and there are only so many angles from which you can paint your own despair; so Blowback is, without doubt, the breakthrough album… and music will be all the poorer for it.

The collaborators aren’t what they used to be (exit Martina, Björk and Terry Hall; enter Alanis Morrissette, Cyndi Lauper and the lead singer from Live); neither

are the lyrics, and even his spliff-singed growl and fearless, groundbreaking production have been made

fitter and happier for daytime radio. Sinew-tight contributions from Chili Peppers Flea and John Frusciante only serve to streamline away any remaining

complications.

Forthcoming single ‘Evolution Revolution Love’ (which, if you ignore rapper Hawkman’s Jamaican patois, is scarifyingly close to, wait for it, ‘Tempted’ by Squeeze) is a suburban anthem poised to fly out of expensive car stereos and adverts on Sky. A jaguar-sleek, battering-ram cover of the ‘Wonder Woman’ theme is ready to soundtrack the kung-fu kicks of whichever lissome C-grade starlet will be starring in the film. And ‘Your Name’s horrifyingly twee cooing may well be the first Tricky tune to backdrop some complicated youthful assignation or other on Dawson’s Creek, which means hotpress readers should hasten to collect their plague-of-locust-proof jackets from the dry cleaner’s. Granted, the ghetto-boxer sparring of ‘Diss Never,’ the jittery calypso of ‘Over Me’ and the lotus-flower murmuring of ‘A Song For Yukiko’ are excellent, but it’s too little, too late.

On a new record label and healthier than he’s been in years, Tricky now “wants to be on MTV and VH-1”. We’ll leave him to it, so.