Tricky: Juxtapose : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Ever since Tricky released his mid-decade solo debut, Maxinquaye, the ex-Massive Attack rhyme stylist and aural architect has been hiding out from his predicted stardom in a deliberate underground murk that revels in hip-hop's psychic malevolence but sidesteps its physical pleasures. So it makes sense that Tricky's collaborations with Cypress Hill's DJ Muggs and Ruff Ryders/DMX producer Dame Grease would bring back some long-missed hooks and melodies to the British innovator's bad-mood music. But who would have thought that these downbeat pairings would result in Tricky's least-hip-hop, most-pop album to date? "For Real" condemns money-minded, pseudo-gangsta posturing with strumming guitars, live drums and a disconsolate male chorus that all suggest a low-fi P.M. Dawn, while "Contradictive" pulls Spanish acoustics and vocal sleaze out of the Doors' closet. Although Juxtapose's study in contrasts doesn't yield another Maxinquaye, Muggs and Grease's light sets Tricky's shadow in welcome relief. (RS 820)

BARRY WALTERS