music

For Tricky’s fifth album Juxtapose he teamed with DJ Muggs (the architect of Cypress Hill's sound, a clear precedent for Tricky's) and DMX's producer, Grease. This album is quite obviously a Tricky album: a highly eccentric artist, an unusual mix of collaborators, an entirely new expression and message. Tricky continues to evolve at his own irascible pace, a riddle always about to reveal itself. His journey remains equally fascinating and frustrating. Two tracks with DJ Muggs find their way to the only single "For Real" ("Pop Muzik", a cover of the song by M) and the Japanese release ("Who").

Tricky calls “Fall Please” “the closest I’ve got to making pop,” which may overlook the pop nous of songs like Maxinquaye’s “Black Steel” (and overestimate mainstream taste for skeletal go-go production). But “Fall Please”—like Fall to Pieces as a whole—does share the laser-sharp emotional focus and melodic efficiency of the best pop music. Bar the rare moments of clunky electronics, almost every sound, touch, and shade on Fall to Pieces feels like it had to be there, in blessed contrast to the rambling dead ends, failed experiments, and misjudged covers of Tricky’s recent records. Fall to Pieces is an audacious cri de coeur that ultimately finds strength in adversity where others might fall apart.