Tricky
Mission Accomplished EP
[Anti/Epitaph]
Rating: 2.0
When I saw Tricky on "Sessions at West 54th" about four years ago, his
performance intrigued me. I watched him hunch over his mic and breathe his
raspy, smoke-stained vocals. His vocal partner in crime Martina Topley Bird
crooned seductively, and his band rhapsodized his unique take on trip-hop.
I watched astounded, enveloped by the layers of sound emanating from my small
television speakers. I immediately scrambled to pick up Maxinquaye,
his 1995 debut.
It soon became one of my all-time favorites. Maxinquaye was a strong,
cohesive, brilliant, unpaved road of a record, filled with clattering,
arrhythmic beats, haunting vocal interplay, and a dark and dismal atmosphere
that still gives me goosebumps with every listen. In 1998, I got a copy of
Angels with Dirty Faces during my internship at a now-defunct
alternative radio station here in Los Angeles. While not as groundbreaking as
Maxinquaye, it was certainly more focused than 1996's somewhat
scattershot Pre-Millennium Tension. Far from a let-down, the album
left me hope for the future of Tricky's musical landscape.
But 1999's Juxtapose was a significant step down. While probably
worthwhile record for those that prefer Tricky's hip-hop material, it seemed
largely inessential for a fan of his more creative output. Even at its best,
Juxtapose played like straightforward rap/hip-hop incorporating a more
watered-down Angels backdrop and uninspired rhymes. It didn't help
that Martina, such an essential element in Tricky's earlier, better work,
was nowhere to be found on the album. I hoped this would only be a brief,
Pre-Millennium-style detour.
Fortunately, I was half right. But only half. I was optimistic that his new
EP could signal a return to the creativity of Maxinquaye, or at least
to that of Angels with Dirty Faces. The four-song Mission
Accomplished EP, however, took this naive assumption of mine, threw it to
the ground, and kicked it with steel-toed boots while shouting degrading
insults at it. As exaggerated as I may sound right now, I need only describe
the unoriginality of the record's opening title track to back my claims.
Tricky utilizes (read: rips off) the main riff of the Mission: Impossible
theme-- a song which has already been retooled to fit 4/4 rock/pop formats at
least twice on a mainstream level over the past four years-- and retools it to
fit a 4/4 rock/pop format. He then whispers nearly unintelligibly along with
this for just over three minutes. Some of the vocals make cliches out of his
past work (he even says "brand new, retro," as in "Brand New You're Retro"
from Maxinquaye), though the majority simply consists of a repetition
of the chorus of Peter Gabriel's "Big Time." Word for word, note for note.
And with no hope for relief until it finally and mercifully ends.
The next two tracks feature rapper Lynx, who rhymes about, well, probably sex,
and some other things I can't possibly make out through his abominable,
incoherent stylings. And to continue Tricky's newfound tradition of
carbon-copying the already prosaic and mundane, he even reuses one of the
drum loops from "Mission Accomplished" as the primary beat for "Crazy Claws."
The only track out of the bunch worth half a listen-- at best-- is "Divine
Comedy," an alternate version of "Money Greedy," one of Angels with Dirty
Faces' strongest tracks. Here, Tricky and his cohorts endlessly rip on
his former record company, repeating "Polygram!/ Fucking niggers..." quite a
few times. This may or may not seem amusing initially; either way, it quickly
becomes pointless and monotonous.
I've listened to this EP twice; that's once more than I would have ever liked
to have heard it, give or take one listen. Mission Accomplished nearly
destroys all hopes I once held for Tricky's future. I could dream about the
next Maxinquaye, or even the next Angels. But sadly, my hopeful,
innocent wishes have already been beaten senseless. Alas, Tricky, I hardly
knew ye.
-Spencer Owen