Tricky

False Idols Tricky Deluxe edition

Tricky is back. Back with a new studio album, False Idols, and his own label (also bearing the False Idols name), but also back in a personal sense. “I was lost for ages”, he says. “I was trying to prove something to people, trying to do something to please other people and also myself at the same time, which is never going to work. To be honest with you, I’ve been floating around since Chris Blackwell and Island. My last two albums, I thought they were good, but I realise now they weren’t. This album is about me finding myself again.” It opens with a cover of a Van Morrison song, “Somebody’s Sins,” which sees Tricky and vocalist Francesca Belmonte whispering “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine” over a sparse groaning bass. The lead single “Parenthesis,” which features a vocals from Peter Silberman of The Antlers, has more rhythmic grunt, which gives a different dimension to the dark gothic atmosphere that pervades the record. No-one does this kind of thing better.