Review Summary: A frustratingly missed opportunity from Tricky
Tricky recently managed to troll me yet again with Pre-Millennium Tension, a CD that spends most of its time gathering dust on my shelf. Every so often, however, I find myself giving it another spin. Maybe it’ll have grown on me, I think to myself. Maybe listening after all these years with fresh ears it’ll make more sense, I kid myself. And so I find myself giving up another 47 minutes of my life to listen to Pre-Millennium Tension.
Things start well, they always do. “Vent” is so claustrophobic it actually feels uncomfortable to listen to, suffocating even (“Can hardly breath” indeed), and I mean this very much in a good way. The album doesn’t drop off after that either, “Christiansands” is a cool jam with a groovy groove and “Bad Dreams” just oozes that suffocating atmosphere that Tricky is so known for. “Tricky Kid” and “Makes Me Wanna Die”, meanwhile, are career highlights for Tricky! “Tricky Kid” is by far his best attempt at making music that is more hip hop than trip hop. This is not to say that Tricky is spitting mad bars or anything like that, but he does have a lot of presence on this track, mumbling with a bit more force than he usually does over a pleasingly badass beat. Rock deserves some credit for his contributions too, the way he echoes Tricky’s lines brings the sort of punch that Tricky’s lethargic flow can’t bring by itself. It really feels like he’s shouting you down, and the effect is intimidating and menacing in the best possible way even if he does sound a little like a Disney villain at points (“NAKED AND FAMOUS!!!”). “Makes Me Wanna Die” is the complete opposite; an ambient ballad of sorts featuring a sublime vocal take from the lovely Martina Topley-Bird.
“This is really good!” I find myself thinking. Maybe I was wrong about this album all along? I recall there being somewhat of a drop-off in quality after the first five songs, but surely it can’t be that big? Right?
Tricky has suckered me again.
The drop-off after those first five songs is absolutely massive, more of a plummet than a drop-off really, as the remaining six songs are incredibly tedious. It’s abundantly clear that Tricky wanted to make something challenging, but instead Pre-Millennium Tension ends up just being boring. Lazy criticism? Perhaps, but it feels fitting here. The songs on the second half of the album refuse to go anywhere or develop at all beyond their opening 30 seconds. They don’t even have the decency to meander, instead looping over and over whilst Tricky, or in some cases somebody else, mutters over them for minutes on end. A cursory listen to the opening 30 seconds of “Ghetto Youth” or “Piano” and you’ve pretty much heard the whole song. Some of these loops don’t even sound good in the first place (see the ugly, disorientating bass and harmonica in “Sex Drive”), and they certainly don’t justify being repeated ad infinitum. Even the ones that do sound good get tiresome by the time Tricky is done with them. The beat to “Ghetto Youth”, for example, is most definitely head bob worthy, but it gets very old very fast after being repeated for almost six minutes (!!!) with NOTHING else added save for the ramblings of some Jamaican dude. Seriously, I can not emphasise enough how much of a slog the album becomes after track five. “Lyrics of Fury”’ briefly gets my hopes up with its snappy drum intro every time, but then proceeds to go nowhere just like all the other tracks. Got me again Tricky! “Bad Things” is interesting I suppose, if not exactly enjoyable.
And so I find myself feeling mugged off yet again for wasting my time listening to Pre Millennium Tension all the way through, even though I should know better by now. The CD is swiftly returned to the shelf, where it will collect dust until enough time has passed for me to forget how boring over half of it is and give it another chance. It’s a damn shame too, because the good stuff here is not only really good but also forward looking and original. Tricky pushes into some uncharted terrain for trip hop on this album, incorporating dissonance and aggression into a strange, jarring new sound that closer resembles contemporary experimental hip hop in the vein of Shabazz Palaces, Yeezus or Atrocity Exhibition than anything to do with the 90s trip hop scene. When he does this successfully it’s pretty fresh and exciting, but the project as a whole ends up smacking of wasted potential thanks to its nosedive into self indulgence in the second half. It for sure deserves some credit for expanding the parameters of trip hop’s sound, but unfortunately a lot of it is really dull. As a result it’s not an album I am very fond of, although I’m sure the quality of the first five songs will trick me into giving it another chance somewhere down the road. Fool me once Tricky, shame on you. You’ve fooled me countless times now though, so I guess I can’t complain. Jokes on me, but ain’t no one laughing.
6 (And I’m being generous)
