Tricky : "Different When it's Silent"

While capturing the dark mood you want from Tricky, this album features singer Mitch Sanders, who opens the album. Sanders employs a light Thom Yorke-like falsetto. This song drones a bit with an organic bass line. They are both from Bristol, but on the second song, there is a more Brit pop feel with rock guitar that crashes in, and some of the moody electronic elements sink to the bottom of the mix. Tricky's trademark low, gravelly whispered croak is layered under Sanders' main vocal. He does step up and take over the mic in a manner that makes this sound more like his album on "Be Still In the Pain". When Run Red Rambo's rap comes, it makes things click into place much better.

 Things get maringally more experimental on "I Tried". It's clear after three songs in that this album is going to be widely different from what we typically expect from him. In reviewing this, I have to put aside the fact that I am a fan of albums like "Post-Millennium Tension" and try to listen to this with fresh ears, not colored by past expectations. There is more of a Brit -pop feel to "So Cold." It begins to feel like they have pushed things a little too far from Sonic's zipcode that Tricky normally resides in with "Paris Maybe".  I don't have a problem with this collaboration; it just sounds more like a Mitch Sanders album than a Tricky album. Aside from the hometown connection,

 I am not sure what drew him to this guy. I think a more intersting album might have been made with a collaboartion with Joji, Chelsea Wolfe, or Xiu Xiu."Cannon Fodder" is almost too abstract and vocal-centered."Because I Don't Know" at least has his vocal sitting in a more appropriate place, even with the weird synth groove. "Marinade" at least has Tricky's voice coming to the forefront. Musically, it has more in common with the Beatles. "Radana" features the rapper of the same name, which feels more like a Tricky song, and Sanders' voice works well in the hook. "Piano" feels like a James Blake ballad of sorts. "Frontier Town" sounds like it's from a movie soundtrack. They strip things down to an acoustic guitar for 'Hengrove Blues," which works well enough for what it is. Good songs are good songs even if this is a wild left turn, so I will give it a 9; it's just not the album I was expecting.

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