Tricky - 'Knowle West Boy' (Domino) Released 07/07/08

It seems like an eternity since Tricky’s critically acclaimed Maxinquaye was released and he was being hailed as the pioneer of trip hop. But 1995’s not that long ago, so what’s clear is that the popular Maxinquaye narrative was never the whole story; this beguiling character had spent the first half of that decade cutting his chops with numerous west-coast luminaries – most notably Massive Attack. Knowle West Boy, then, appears to be Tricky’s essay at biographizing his formative years, those spent working towards his critical breakthrough.

Starting at the beginning (chronologically, if not running order-wise), on the rock / hip hop / drum ‘n’ bass of ‘Council Estate’ Tricky spits “In my mothers belly and I’m starting to kick / nine months in the womb and I’m making her sick” before going on to paint a distinct picture of formative years as lived on a council estate under Thatcher’s bleak ‘80s reign (indeed, this is amongst a number of Knowle West Boy’s examples of the kind of social comment formerly associated with the likes of The Specials who, it would appear, Tricky was a big fan of growing up).

There’s the similarly autobiographical ‘School Gates’, which is about the singer’s personal experience with a pregnant teenage girlfriend: “I used to wait for her outside the school gates / she’s fifteen and pregnant, I guess it’s too late / I guess I’m too young, but I do what I can”. Accompanied by Lubna - a recent ex-girlfriend - this haunting, atmospheric number hangs on a darkly country-ish acoustic figure and is Tricky’s Johnny Cash moment. Hard to imagine, but it is. On ‘Past Mistake’, the singer is back on terra firma, musically; a brooding backing track over which his trademark whisper is again augmented by Lubna in a meditation on relational tension (the singer has acknowledged in interviews that the track unintentionally documents their relationship break down).

As hinted at above, the range of style and influence is myriad and far-reaching: ‘Puppy Toy’ is an updated bar room blues; there’s a rock re-working of Kylie Minogue’s ‘Slow’; ‘Coalition’ finds Tricky in rap mode… we could go on. It’s enough to say that 'Knowle West Boy' is a captivating piece of work; the sound of an artist growing into himself, examining where he came from and contrasting what he was then, with who and where he is now.