Adrian Thaws

Choosing to title an album after your birth name and then insisting said album is your *least* personal album to date is exactly the kind of contradiction that brazen music artists like to court. Tricky\'s quick follow-up to the previous year’s *False Idols* shows an artist who prefers to make music as opposed to one who waits until marketing departments say the time is right. Tricky didn\'t wait to build up expectations when he could charm folks with collaborations with London-based vocalist Tirzah and the always dependable Francesca Belmonte, who turns “I Had a Dream” into silk. Tricky’s work on “My Palestine Girl” veers near the avant-garde menace of his best work. A cover of London Posse’s “Gangster Chronicle” with Bella Gotti is likely to divide fans, who also have to decide how they feel about Gotti’s fast-talking appearance on “Why Don’t You,” where Tricky recalls the electronica-rock of Prodigy’s “Firestarter.”

“Calling it Adrian Thaws is saying you don’t really know me,” says Tricky, explaining the title of his 11th album. “So many times people have tried to put a finger on me and every album I go to a different place.” It’s typical of one of music’s most unpredictable characters that the first album to bear his birth name is one of his least introspective. Adrian Thaws is a vivid, attention-grabbing set of songs which roamfrom hip hop to house, jazz to blues, rock to reggae. It was recorded in Tricky’s home studio in London, where he’s living again after almost two decades in New York, Los Angeles and Paris, and features an international crew of collaborators: Francesca Belmonte, Nneka, Mykki Blanco, Bella Gotti, Tirzah, Blue Daisy and Oh Land. It’s designed to be played loud. “I suppose this is my club/hip hop album,” he says. “I’ve only heard my music a few times in a club but I grew up in clubs from when I was 14: blues parties, hip hop clubs, a few raves. I’m not known for doing club music but this album has some club tracks on it — well, what I would consider club music.”

This quick follow-up to last year's False Idols bears Tricky's birth name, suggesting something confessional; it's also been talked up as a departure for the veteran singer/producer, suggesting a more club-oriented sound. However, there’s not much on Adrian Thaws that distinguishes it from the direction Tricky has been heading over the past 15 years.

The Bristol trip-hop renegade is at it again, sprinting towards greatness with thundering electronics and forward-thinking lyrics.

Tricky has teamed up with Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie on his forthcoming new album.

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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.

It would be easy to relegate this Bristol-bred emcee to a very compartmentalized and sometimes incorrect intellectual place-"trip hop," "Bristol sound," and "ex-Massive Attack" are silly buzzwords that try to draw some arbitrary (if momentarily helpful) l

Album review: Tricky - Adrian Thaws. Restless, furiously inventive and resolutely original...

With stark beats and well-chosen guest vocalists, Tricky’s 11th album recalls his mid-90s peak, writes <strong>Paul Mardles</strong>

The Bristolian trip-hop pioneer refreshes his singular sound with uncompromising tales of poverty, race hate and emotional comedowns, writes <strong>Lanre Bakare</strong>

Dark sounds from Bristol maverick keep hitting the spot. New music review by Mark Kidel