Maxinquaye

Solidan trip hop album sa elementima hip hopa, eksperimentiranjem nekakvih sampleova i nekako nokturalno raspoložen. Općenito trip hop žanr spada više u noćne sate, kišne dane, jednostavno taj žanr meni ne spada pod nekakvu sreću, da ga slušam po lijepom vremenu, ne znam. Uglavnom, album je dosta solidan, nije među najboljima, ali svakako je moguće povrat na ovaj album kada budem u žaru slušanja ove vrste glazbe.

Meh

I thought this album was great, atmospheric and varied in theme a d style

Pela minha leitura o mister Trciky foi produtor de uma música do álbum de estreia dos Massive Attack, após este sucedido o monsieur tricky decide lançar a sua própria obra músical com este álbum. No meu entender o álbum começa de uma maneira mais forte do que acaba. Para o final as melodias tornam-se mais repetitivas e com mais Rap. Acho que o principio lucra muito com as vozes femeninas. Mas acho que não tenho muito a dizer, é um álbum de eletrónica com misturas relativamente bem produzido, possivelmente pior que o Blue Lines dos Massive attack, mas não é mau. Lembro-me de ter gostado da música Aftermath. Nota: 5,5/10 07/06/2024

Rustige, trage hiphop. Ook eerder muziek om op de achtergrond te laten spelen. Een beetje lounge-vibes

chill, some nice vocals, but not totally memorable

Kannte ich nicht. Noch easy aber aucn nicht voll cool. Schöne frauenstimme. 90er rap

Very hard to understand what I thought of that.. It didn't leave much impression but I didn't hate it

Really like the first half of this album. Second half is alright. Chill. 7/10

Wow. To be honest it is very difficult to describe this album. There are a couple of songs that are obvious early trip-hop with the “lo-fi beats to chill/study to” vibe. Other tracks are a mix between soft rock and progressive. Like if you combined Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, and The Cranberries. It’s not my favorite album but I can appreciate it for what it is.

Still pretty great. I’ve moved away from what I used to love about this album, but the good parts are still fantastic.

slow and moody. one song i liked. didn't finish. got bored.

Trip hop; listened to this in the background at the cabin. I was not offended

Aw yis. Very pleased this one popped up. A bit samey, in the end though.

Cool beats and an off vibe that I liked

I don't know if I'm an uneducated fool or anything, but I don't get this. Especially the second half. Those background sounds really annoyed me. 6/10 F.T.: Hell is round the Corner

1995: Overcome, Black Steel, Hell Is Round The Corner

Strange album. I really struggled through it. There’s some cool stuff in here for sure, but there’s more of it that I just didn’t care for.

Ranges from forgettable to annoying. Strugglin’ was a painful slog and dropped thus from a meh 3 to an ugh 2.

More Alison Goldfrapp? Hell is Round the Corner isn't a Portishead sample? (I swear they are indistingushable.) Anyway, I do not need any more of this stuff.

Cool vibes, and I reading the wiki description I get why its on the list, but not for me. I few songs I did really like, but probably wont come back. Black Steel was the best song.

Very unique genre...looking it up, it's listed as "trip hop" and experimental. The background beats are decent but sometimes the vocals and additional sounds are weird. It was okay but I didn't love it.

Mostly very boring and lifeless. Most songs remind me of funeral dirges. A few tunes have a nice groove which keeps me from giving this 1 star. Topley-Bird has a great voice which, I think, is wasted here. A real chore to listen to.

I couldn’t really get into this. Appreciate this album is highly regarded but I just found it abit uninteresting and a bit lifeless at times. Might have to give it another go but not really a fan on first listen, found a lot of the tracks too similar sonically.

I don’t know.

4/10 - Couldn't finish the album cause it was very samey from what I listened to aside from one song. Strong vocals but lacking diversity.

Not a fan of this.

Nothing Tricky about it: This album is just moody drivel.

Very British very background

Pretty good trip hop, but a tad too minimalist at times for me

A spacey, super laid-back kind of electronic music I just can't engage with. Doesn't do anything for me

2/5 Favorite Song: Feed Me

Pass

tvis deagged

Long album. Pretty boring. It had a couple of good samples on it though (Portishead and Michael Jackson).

2 out of 5. Some parts grabbed me but not that interesting for me as a whole.

For a debut album, it hits the standard of what it was trying to achieve

620/1001 2026.25.22

1.5 I had a clever review all queued up for this, but now that im writing it I cant for the life of me remember it. Maybe something about the singers being a mush mouth or something like that. Anyway the album sucked

Maxinquaye shares a lot in common with the debut albums from the other two big Bristol trip hop artists, with one exception: it features noticeably less hip hop influence. The songs here are largely emptier and spacier, with fewer hip hop beats. The album starts out a bit busier, with the second track having some Bone Machine-esque drums. But after the awkwardly rock Public Enemy cover, things get sparse. It's generally at least an interesting atmosphere, but slow songs like "Strugglin'" can be a real slog. The vocals don't add much, and Tricky himself often feels absent. I think if you buy into the nocturnal, sexual vibe this would be a treat, but I find the album too simple and repetitive to do so.

I'd probably rate this higher if I'd never listened to any other trip-hop but everything interesting about this album was being done better by their contemporaries

a decent to good triphop album that doesn't really gel as an album or have any standout tracks you want to grab from it it's not bad but this feels like an easy drop from the list to grab something more interesting from the genre

So I was informed Tricky is playing at the 2026 Riot Fest in Chicago. I thought there has to be something I missed. Nope. Outside a couple songs, this was pretty slow and not very entertaining. Don't believe I'll stop by and check these guys out. Best thing I can say is it wasn't downright terrible. Just not my listening preference. Hell, anytime I see electronica in the genre, I just know it's not for me. Saving my 1's for the truly offensive to my ears stuff. here's your 2 2

2.5 I went into this album with no knowledge or expectations of Tricky and feel like I’m coming out of it with nothing gained. A quick Google search shows he’s a former member of trip hop pioneers Massive Attack, who had an album earlier on this list that I quite enjoyed, but the sound of this just didn’t quite scratch that same itch for me. In fact, I found the first couple songs to be borderline grating, to the point where they aggravated a headache I had coming on, and I had to stop and come back to this a day later. When it comes to Ponderosa, Tricky’s got nothing on Chris Noble (iykyk) I didn’t find the two songs that much more enjoyable today, however, that said, I feel like this album picks up almost immediately after them with Black Steel, which was far and away my favorite track here… though that’s likely because it’s the only one with any energy to it. Like, look, I wouldn’t necessarily say I have a bias against downtempo stuff, I’m capable of getting down with a mellow vibe just as much as anyone else, but the vast majority of this imparts nothing at all. I wouldn’t call it atmospheric, unique, or really that interesting - it just sort of is. And the rare time it tries to say something, well, it gives us Abbaon Fat Tracks, which I wish I could unhear. There are a couple decent moments, but this is mostly a nothingburger. Far from being objectionable, but is being forgettable that much better?

Wat ontzettend saai! Moet je toch niet aan denken dat je hier aan mee moet spelen. Het lijkt ook allemaal op elkaar. Misschien muziek voor bij een film.

So, the story goes this guy “Tricky” left Massive Attack to do his own thing, and this is the result. Seems like he wanted to do a lot more hopping than tripping, as this definitely leans reggae/hip hop of the trip hop I’ve ever heard. Decent listen, nothing special.

Man this really was annoying in a strange way. First, the vocalist could be the sister of the Artic Monkey's vocalist which isn't a good start. But good lord, Black Seal and others were so damn repetitive. They were going for a sexy vibe but I just found it gross

Not for me. Feels like some tracks belong on an sad sound track

Some of the songs were ok but not for me, like Overcome, Hell Is Round The Corner, Pumpkin, Aftermath, and Suffocated. The rest were a hard pass. Half of the songs are 2s, half 1s. Hard to give a final rating. The 2s are decent enough that I'll stick with that. Best song: Suffocated

It's all perfectly...fine. Trip hop was never my jam even when it had it's moment in the 90s. Listenable, but not memorable.

I hate rap and hip-hop and most r&b, but this is none of those - this is just junk.

Out of all the great music that came out of 90’s, the author picked this album of all things to have us listen to. What a joke. There was a reason why this got lost back then. And there’s a reason why now no one listens to it. Because it’s boring and it sucks.

I was doing well in catching up with my album backlog before getting to this album. The first few songs on this album caused me to hit a wall so hard that I did a 180 and ran away from 1001AG for about 4 days. Unfortunately, the bad songs on this album sounds what I imagine a drug trip sounds like and cannot make up for any redeeming factors of tolerable songs. I feel like there are parts where the music is good--it could be good, but when everything is put together it is not good.

I'll preface this by saying I wasn't the biggest fan of the Massive Attack record in this collection so I didn't have high hopes about a solo record from one of their members and I was right. I just don't think this album is for me. I know someone out there loves this and that's awesome, but I found it boring. I'm not mad I had to listen to it but I probably won't remember this album after today. 2/5

Maybe no soy tan open mind con la música como pensé

Laik para la canción 4

Du trip hop, un mélange de hip-hop, soul, dub et rock. Je m'attendais à mieux. Très softy comme album. Je retiens plus la voix de la chanteuse que les mélodies et arrangements de Tricky.

Too chill for me

Massive Disappointment.

Interesting but not really my thing

meh

2.5 A few songs I got was into but overall not for me

If "meh" was an album. Also a pretty good example of why trip-hop didn't survive the 90s/early '00s

Boring. Lifeless. These are the best 2 words I can use to describe this. There's almost nothing of note here. Boring beats, quiet barely audible words, sort of mumbly, just nothing. Barely a melody can be heard. The only reason this isn't a 1 is because there's one song I didn't mind - Black Steel. 2/5

Mellow beats, dreamy vocals

Yeah, it was an interesting album. Sounds more modern than you would expect, but still very 90's and very British. The production was a bit same-y at times, but it was interesting enough to listen to the whole thing. It did feel a bit edgelord-y. Maybe it wasnt received that way at the time.

1 is probably too harsh, so I’m giving it a 2. Barely. And I like hip hop. Learning that this is from a member of Massive Attack, it makes more sense that I don’t like it.

not my thing

Electronic album, interesting. Again low expectations but as we saw that doesn’t neccasarily matter. Songwriting is pretty good, not really a fan of the beat to be honest. Very slow for an electronic song. Ponderosa is a much cooler beat. The sound mixing feels just a little off, beat is too loud. Black steel isn’t electronic at all, this is just a rock song. Pretty good. Cool sound on bell is round the corner. I like that soft piano a lot. Simple but affective bass. Don’t like the vocals very much. Pumpkin is another one that feels way too slow to be electronic. More of a metal song. Pretty cool but not amazing. Beat on aftermath is really cool. Lyrics are very repetitive. Not a fan of abbaon, weirdly vulgar. I like the guitar a lot on retro. Again more of a rock song but it’s good. You don’t is more of the same. Good not great. Very poppy. Pretty cool beat. Strugglin is a little choppy but it kind of works. Quiet vocals again. Disappointing last song. Feed me isn’t it. Beat doesn’t work. Vocals are Meh. Overall it’s just a fine album. Nothing special at all. 2.4 stars.

Toughhhh listen

If purgatory was an album, honestly was kind of a drag to get through

wasn't too bad in the first half but all that talk singing just got annoying as hell

Not for me. Monotonous at best.

Very different, but that doesn’t necessarily mean good. not for me

In the genre I’d rather have Massive Attack or Portishead.

eh, bezveze. ženski vokal mi je bio dobar i lijep, muški i sve ostalo skroz bezveze, na trenutke naporno

If I still did homework I might be grateful for this album. Instead, I don’t do homework.

Not my cup of tea. Pushed me further away from the genre as a whole if anything.

After listening to this album, it just left a messy aftertaste, chaotic, somewhat melodic, can agree that it is a "trip-hop" album, but didn't feel like listening to anything great or good, actually.

Some songs of this are annoying to listen to and some remind me of Guy Ritchie movies. It's different to most other rap albums I've heard, have to give it that.

Even though I like trip hop, this album didn't really do it for me. It was too slow, too eerie.

I really wish I loved this more, but out of all his records, only Juxtapose with the great Muggs truly clicked with me. As much as I respect Tricky as a creative force and innovator, I still gravitate way more toward Massive Attack’s albums. I’m not dismissing Maxinquaye but it feels almost too murky and sticky for my taste, and I keep wishing there were more moments like Overcome or Pumpkin. It’s a tough listen for me, yet somehow still fascinating. But reusing Isaac Hayes / Glory Box sample doesn’t really do him any credit.

At first I thought this was fully a nightmare, but the back to back of Abboan Fat Tracks and Brand New You're Retro hit like a truck.

> If unease were an art form, then Maxinquaye would be its Sistine Chapel. I don’t think unease should be an art form. Blegh. Unsubscribe.

Not at all memorable.

triphop... net een klein trapje hoger op mijn muzikale ladder dan hiphop... ideaal als achtergrond in een lounge café... toevallig het soort café waar ik niet graag vertoef

What was this actually

Well…..I guess I don’t mind this playing in the background. It’s ok but it is not something that really sticks out or that I would seek out. It often sounds like several songs playing at once.

Ughhh 90s/00s trip hop/electronica will be the death of me. I cannot with its abundant representation on this list

I had no idea what the genre was when I started and really couldn’t figure it out Until much later when I read about it. Not an album that was even slightly interesting to me. Don’t need to ever listen to this boring album again.

Oh no, not more rap... Anyway, I kind of like the grime/dub music, not so keen on the vocals. And the version served up by Qobuz had 49 tracks which rendered the whole experience interminable.

Who knew that Finlay Quaye's nephew was that dude from Massive Attack? Loved Black Steel when I heard it on one of the NME Single of the week compilation CDs. There was a bit of biting that Isaac Hayes sample from Portishead though...

A confusing compilation of tracks. Every song seemed to be a mashup of more than one song playing at the same time. It wasn’t bad music, it just didn’t seem to fit together like a puzzle piece; but maybe that was the point. The vocals seemed to fit with the drums, but there was always a synthesized beat that seemed to go against the grain. The lyrics were a story in and of themselves that I don’t care to rabbit-hole down into. Overall a frustrated listen that left me with more questions than answers.

Found this one pretty boring tbh. I quite liked the first song so I thought I’d enjoy it more than I did but it just felt pretty endless and was too whispery for me. Some other songs I liked but I wouldn’t listen to the album again. Fav song: Hell is Round The Corner Least fav: Ponderosa

I don't particularly like her voice which made this album quite difficult to listen to. I quite liked his vocals but the slowness of it meant after one song of that I was ready for it to be done. Favourite song: Hell Is Round The Corner Least: Feed Me

Some nice songs, but not my thing.

Tricky. Was that the rapper or the Brit-pop band? The rapper, which is a shame. I could have tolerated this more had there been less English accents and discordant noise.

Um bocado estranho este álbum, nem consigo perceber que género é. Mas, pelo menos, gostei de uma música: Black Steel. É um 2/5. Achei demasiado longo com algumas músicas demasiado extensas.

Nop

2/5 - Sampling "Suffer" by the Pumpkins on a track called "Pumpkin" was a nice wink. I liked the "Black Steel" cover. On the whole, this was background music for me.

I've never heard of Tricky before, but I have heard the instrumental hook of "Hell Is Round The Corner" without knowing where it came from. The album was a nice mix of jazz and hip-hop with a laid back lounge feel to it. It was the kind of music I'd imagine hearing in a dimly lit cafe with a bunch of patrons smoking and snapping their fingers in agreement. "Black Steel" was the only other song that grabbed my attention.

Wasn't minding it until halfway through it just got gross for he sake of it it.

Sounds too jazzy for me... Like Massive Attack. Not really my thing

First Listen; 3; This just didn't really grab me. Not sure why, and it's one that I'd hoped to like, but I didn't find it catchy or immersive enough. Favorite Track: Aftermath

i knew one (1) song. anyway i think i'm not experimental enough for this LMFAO BUT some i didn't hate. hated the anal song tho that felt assaulty. deserves a 1.5 but let me be nice

There's a lot of things I like about the album, but a lot of things I don't like as well. It's experimental, it's industrial, it's probably most loved by the coolest person you know. I can see that this album was influential and certainly ground-breaking for it's time. My personal favorite is "Hell is Around the Corner."

A combination of my 2 least favourite genres, electronic and hip hop. An absolute chore to sit through. Standout Songs: Overcome Pumpkin

disappointed, expected better lowkey

Spooky

Dumbass ambient album

I'd consider this my first experience with Trip-Hop. I dig the underground sound it has, but it didn't really hit home for me. It was easy for me to fade in and out when listening. Probably just not my thing, but definitely not terrible.

💩🗑

Not awful but certainly not good.

2/5

Black Steel is a fantastic song, but it might be the only one on an album that does little wrong but rarely rises above interesting background music. When it ended it took me close to 10 minutes to realize that music was no longer playing lost in the neo trip hop sounds of my heater bravely fighting to keep my butt warm. Picture me playin' it again, I said, never.

Not my bag

A darker, sluttier version of Morcheeba.

..

The first third of the album was listenable/tolerable, but the samey beats and lack of hooks made me feel slightly frustrated at the end of the album. I hated the second to last track

It had its moments…but they were few and far between.

OK background music to some.backyard cricket. Wouldn't listen to it otherwise. May have social issue in there but didnt lock me in

Found it rather boring, but not bad.

God knows what this was. At least it was unique I guess. Doesn’t quite deserve 1 star but I won’t be back.

Viby, some interesting tunes to say the least, enjoyed some and not others as much

The first two-thirds of the album had 90s vampire bad boy vibes, tracks 8-10 was the freak section, and I don't even know how to classify 11-12. Needless to say, I didn't care for this album.

this is part of the actual writeup for this album from apple music. no words have been added or removed to appeal to my sense of humor or otherwise impact the rhetorical goals of the author: "Thanks to its unhurried hush, the album is a make-out must, but it's the pervading sense of danger that makes it so sensually sinister." what the fuck?

Absolutely dreadful to sludge through. It’s a shame that there were moments I enjoyed that lasted all too shortly or, sometimes, all too long. On par with the Massive Attack album for me. Please, sir, no more.

ehh, a massive attack spin-off series that’s only ok.

Meh, I couldn’t went without hearing this.

Smooth but couldn’t catch a lot of the lyrics.

Just not my favorite genre. I really could not get into this album but it’s not “bad” enough to give a 1.

This just didn't do anything for me, and I normally dig the genre. The best track was Black Steel, but even that was just alright.

Kinda boring for me unfortunately. It just seems lazy, the way he moans across the beats, and the beats were nothing to write home about. This album made me want to listen to Portishead the whole time.

Hip hop with all the excitement removed. It isnt worthless but it doesn't help that the best track is blown away by by Glory Box

Great name. Vibe forgetable.

Love tricky but was a bit underwhelmed by this album - I must remember to give another listen

There were tracks I thought were pretty interesting and others I was ready to hit skip.

This ultimately left me feeling super disappointed. I usually love dark, moody electronica, but I was never able to get any sparks to ignite here despite a few playthroughs. Overall, this felt kinda boring & forgettable... and even mildly annoying at times - I'm lookin' at you, "Strugglin'". Sigh... not even Alison Goldfrapp could save this, but I'm required by law not to completely fail anything she had a hand in, no matter how small.

Extremely dark and moody, thought this would be right up my alley, but it consistently fell short of being great for me personally.

Not my vibe but overall neat

i like the beats a lot but unfortunately i hated the vocalists’ voice and it made it rather hard to really get into…

Pretty forgettable, doesn't hold a candle to Massive Attack. Aftermath has one of the worst, most out of place samples I have ever heard in a song, so jarring every time it triggers

Too long. This doesn't pop to me the way Massive Attack or Portishead do. Black Steel is definitely cool though.

2.5 fav: -overcome -hell is round the corner

Definitely a different sound to this album. Not a sound that I enjoy. Weird whispering and never really goes anywhere. 3.5/10 (1.75/5)

A struggle to get through. Just not for me

some grooves but really repetitive and her voice can get annoying

wiwed ans beotiH

I’ll start with the positive, I really liked Black Steel, absolutely banging song. Unfortunately this was one of only two songs I enjoyed on this album. Overall I found it mostly boring apart from Ponderosa which I absolutely hated.

This was a hard listen for me. I wanted to like it and some parts I did but most of it felt cheesey.

This did not speak to me.

This was pretty chill for a friday morning. I enjoyed it, but the version I have to listen to is the deluxe edition, and I wont be continuing past the original tracks. For the most part this was pretty good background music.

Not a fan

Favorite Track: Hell Is Round The Corner (but only for the sample)

Well produced, experimental and all that... Must admit I was not really paying attention, the album just sort of faded out in the background...

Not really my thing, guess this guy might be why I didn't like Massive Attack's first album very much either. "Black Steel" and "Brand New You're Retro" were probably the ones I enjoyed the most

We have massive attack at home Fav song: Overcome

Full disclosure, about half the songs weren’t available on Apple Music. From what I heard this is a bit too over the place for my liking. 2/5

Quiet unclear vocals made this okay for background music but not a focal point.

Not my style

We were listening to this with some people staying with us for a few days and one of them kept asking, “which album is this now?” and we just kept saying, it’s still the same one. Maybe I should relisten to get a better sense but I think this one was just too varied and weird for me.

Kinda lukewarm on this one. I know it’s revolutionary for its time and broke a lot of ground, but just sounds dated.

A couple moments where I thought, "that sounds cool". A lot of time where I was very bored.

Oh yeah I know ecstasy, I smoke it all the time

4.5/10

This is fine.

Very experimental beats, which are not really "common" in my ears. But the vibe and flow is something different, which makes it very interesting. It depends on your taste if you like this kind of mashup of different genres or not. But nothing for me....

fede nok beats, meget anstrengende stemmer

I didn't like this nearly as much as the Massive Attack albums. I think he fit in well in the Massive Attack context, but from this album he seems like the weakest link.

Am pretty familiar with Tricky, as I remember listening to some of his stuff back in the early 2000's when he was collaborating with Ed Kowalczyk. I didn't like his stuff back then, and nothing has changed 20+ years later. I'm never quite sure if he's trying to do electronica, hip-hop, or rap...(i guess maybe it could be considered "trip-hop"). Either way, very few of his songs are appealing to me at all. By the time I got to the penultimate song (Strugglin'), I thought to myself "that song name is very apropos".

Didn't really love this album, was a bit depressing/out of my genre taste. Was a bit gritty and felt a little rough. Enjoyed Black Steel and Hell is Around the Corner, and maaaybe Strugglin', but overall not my favorite. Would give it around a 4/10 for enjoyment.

Overcome - Slightly underproduced(?) Wasn't a fan Pondrosa - Similar issue Black Steel -Good vocals, liked it Hell is Round the Corner - Also liked it Pumpkin - Interlude like track. Not a fan AFtermath - Ok, slightly long but a vibe Abbaon Fat tracks - Meh Brand New Youre retro - 90 hip influence vibe, ok

Weird music mix combined with barely audible vocals for much of the album didn’t impress me.

hmm it was ok

Not my thing, but far from awful.

I gave this a few listens in the 90's when I was into trip-hop and lo-fi electronic music. I'm not sure this has the firepower to be in the Top 1001, it didn't really break new ground and sounds like a lot of other stuff from the mid 90's. Martina Topley-Bird's voice is his savior but I always found his songs, and some of the Massive Attack tracks he was on, went on for a minute or two too long. Steady listen count with a few tracks that are impressive like "Overcome" (17M), "Black Steel" (12M), "Aftermath" and the one hit(?) he had with "Hell Is Around The Corner" (46M). All the other tracks are over 1M so it's still getting played. Best song I forgot about, "Feed Me". "Ponderosa" was hard to listen to, I had to FF at the midway point. "Black Steel" wasn't much better for me. "Brand New You're Retro" was a monotonous nightmare! Overall this is a 2 star album, nothing really stands out, it's kinda boring, nothing is worthy of a second listen and most of it sounds like the song before it and after it. In all honesty, I was ready for it to be over by song #3.

Cha’demais

weird and kind of boring, honestly.

Gets increasingly tedious as it goes… Goldfrapp the only enjoyable moment for me

Never heard of Tricky. Some of the songs are interesting and it's not a bad album. Best Songs Black Steel Aftermath Brand New You're Retro

Didn't care for it

Would have been ok if it wasn't too long. Exceeds the limit of how much 90s Trip Hop one can handle.

First impression pre listen: So my last foray into the "Massive Attack" world ended up in a bit of a disappointing place, as what I thought would be a really hypnotic and trippy experience ended up being quite boring. (Blue Lines) I remember not really thinking much of Tricky's contributions to that project. That he'd have an entire solo album on this list was frankly a bit unexpected. But it's on here, and if it is I'm gonna give it an honest shot. I'll be honest and say that I'm not expecting much. I'm hoping to be completely wrong. Gonna try to be as fair and constructive as possible. Individual track notes: Overcome There's a certain dreaminess to the beat which is really quite cool. The vocals are a bit unintelligeable. I like the wooden flute-like sound. Feels like one of those tracks where you're just supposed to appreciate the vibe it gives off. I really enjoy the low-key soft vocals. The repetition is honestly quite stimulating at times. Solid start. Good. 4/5 Ponderosa Obnoxious percussive elements. Kinda dislike the moaning. The experimentation leaves it sounding quite disjointed and messy. Some of the background effects feel very random. The vocals are pretty interesting, but some of her inflections take a bit getting used to. Dislike. 2/5 Black Steel Interesting storytelling, solid lyrics. Don't love the percussion. The more rock oriented angle has a kick to it. However it kinda leaves the track sounding a bit too open. The rambly vocal melody is pretty cool. Appreciate the energy. Decent. 3.5/5 Hell Is Round The Corner Same sample as "Glory Box" by Portishead. Boring rapping. It's breathy and monotone. Decent female vocals. Average. 2.5/5 Pumpkin Pleasant. Unintelligeable vocals, might as well be singing backwards. Meandering and slow. The speak-sung parts are really tacky, sounds like a creaky door. Occasionally sounds like one of those self guided meditation videos. I don't get it. Terrible. 1/5 Aftermath Flat. Another vibe song. It's arranged quite competently, but it's incredibly uninteresting to me. The constantly looping instrumental becomes quite overbearing, and while the flute and the vocals add some variety to the mix it all falls into this same category of utter blandness. I don't know when I'd listen to this. Dislike. 2/5 Abbaoun Fat Tracks There's a hint of psychedelia here which is quite cool I guess. Don't love the lyrics at all. Too unsubtle. Feels like some of it is there for pure shock value. Honestly a bit cringe. Strongly dislike. 1.5/5 Brand New You're Retro Abrasive and loud. Overly distorted, fails at sounding industrial or crunchy. Just ends up being annoying. Terrible effects. Sounds like an alarm in the background. Also sounds like a rubber toy for a dog or something. Absurd. Almost unlistenable. 1/5 Suffocated Love What am I listening to. I hate his voice here. Busy and dissonant background effects. Creepy sexuality. Also manages to be boring as hell. Terrible. 1/5 You Don't Not offensive to the ears at least. Decent vocals, fairly interesting percussion. Does get quite repetetive and has some annoying elements but it also has some parts that are pretty hypnotic. Average. 2.5/5 Strugglin' It's that type of experimental track where I can appreciate that they're doing something unique and different, but to me it just sounds like a incomprehensible selection of disjointed ideas that fail to make me feel anything. Feels like someone'a pretentious art project. I don't get it. Strongly dislike. 1.5/5 Feed Me Cool instrumental. Really like how the interplay between the chimes and the vocals. I like how melodic it is. Satisfying ending. Decent. 3.5/5 Final Review: While I generally appreciate experimental music this was definitely not for me. I can tolerate slow. Hell I even like slow. I can even appreciate some ambient music, but somehow this almost bored me to tears. Don't get me wrong, there are some tracks here that intrigued me with their hypnotic arrangments and low key vocals. However for the most part it was either long stretches of repetitive meandering, or nigh unlistenable, pretentious cringefests that ended up being a struggle to get through. I'm not adverse to some sexual themes in my music, but here it felt mostly hamfisted, and even at times creepy. Tricky's strange, creaky voice makes it impossible for me to take him seriously. There are tracks here I genuinely don't understand the purpose of. Where they're too abrasive and busy to relax to, but too boring and undynamic to concentrate on. I'll at least give credit to the production as it sounds competent and purposeful, even though I find some of the ideas here baffling. I struggled getting through this thing. However I do think there is some artistic merit here, as most of my arguments come down to "I don't get it". The few standout tracks are genuinely a good time, and even some of the more mid-range tracks have moments of genuine colour and beauty. I also appreciate how different it is from other albums on here, where its experimental nature ends up sort of setting it apart, even if I ended up disliking a majority of its contents. Maybe it could grow on me should I ever decide to return to it. 2/5

The downtempo songs are too sleepy, and the uptempo songs are just a bit unpleasant for me. Didn't connect with this one.

Fine enough, there were some interesting sounds on this for sure. The entire thing didn't really grab my attention though. 57 minutes is kind of long and there are no real hooks or other moments that stick with you. I can't recall ever hearing Tricky himself on this either. A big kind of nothing album to me.

The sounds in this album are nothing special for me. It’s have a pretty monotone sound throughout each song. However, the lyrics in a lot of those songs are pretty insane. So much so that I had to remove a star because it was hard to listen to.

Music to zone out to Will I listen to again: 0%

Of the albums we were left with over the break, Maxinquaye is the one I kept coming back to, stuck as I was in its molasses-thick production. Unlike other sample-based music that we've listened to thus far, which often sounds brittle, with its layers of audio sliding across each other like graphite, this is dense and unstratified. I rarely know where I am in it: it's over my head or I'm upside-down. It is only the familiar – but unexpected – references – to Japan, to Smashing Pumpkins – that suggest I might find my way through. Most obvious, of course, is the shared sample between Hell Is Round the Corner and Portishead's Glorybox. It is hard to listen to Tricky's track and not compare it with the work by his fellow Bristolians. In Glory Box, Beth Gibbons is the star. The sampled arcana may be murky, but she sits atop it all, clear as a bell, as clear as Aretha Franklin - “Give me a reason to be a woman.” On Maxinquaye, Martina Topley-Bird – whose voice is beautiful and whose cheeky vernacular makes her as charming as Neneh Cherry – is never given so distinct a topline. She too is subsumed in the viscous vinyl crackle. Of course, Hell Is Round the Corner is predominantly a vehicle for Tricky rapping, which, for me, always feels more limited than melody. No matter how rhythmic – and Tricky is distractingly laconic – it is one-note, never interacting with the music in the way that melody can. It has nowhere to go but the straight line. I go back to Mark Fisher's writing on the album. Portishead, he points out, is hip-hop with the Blackness toned down – that is, no rapping. He compares Tricky to the Britpop exploding at the time, a scene that built itself on models of Britishness that dominated in the 60s and early 70s, a White Britishness, where Black influence was imported on seven inches not part of the living culture. Tricky represents a more accurate image of British pop in the mid-90s: mixed-race; mixed vocals (rapper and chanteuse); mixed sex (male singing from a female perspective and vice-versa). His work acknowledges the music that happened in the UK since the seventies – art pop, later Bowie, two-tone. And his posturing is distinct and relatable, unlike his rapping American contemporaries: gender-bending rather than misogyny; working class veretie, rather than gangster posturing and consumer greed. But, god, was mid-90s Britain ever gloomy. Of course, Fisher's description of Britpop is reductive. Or that moment didn't last long. If anything, Maxinquaye sounds like Vanishing Point by Primal Scream: cloudy, dreary. Black Steel could even be on XTRMNTR. That's certainly the UK and, for what its worth, I find Tricky more relatable than his conservative American counterparts, but, now that I've returned and returned to it, I don't think I need to return to it again. Grim. 2 I find this album gloomy and energy-sapping. I like Martina Topley-Bird’s voice a lot but I struggled to care about much that she used it for here. Martina does a quare lot of lifting, considering hers isn’t the name in the marquee and that adds another slightly depressing dimension to proceedings. Tricky’s own vocal contributions are irritating, lacking any life musically or dramatically. If there are vivid moments of melody, beats, arresting samples or even lyrics (Black Steel) - they are used to build nothing; they simply “groove” for a few seedy minutes. I have put groove in inverted commas there because presumably no one would attempt to dance to this stuff; that is not its raison d'être. Nor would (or at least should) anyone put this on as background ambience to a social gathering unless they meant to discomfort their guests. To my mind this could surely serve only as DVD menu music and kudos to Tricky for anticipating the form before the technology was even rolled out. But here’s a film I wouldn’t watch.  1.5/5

Unnecessary addition to the list.

Not a big fan, very repetitive and a lot of weird and awkward noises.

Was ok…recognised that song

Hell is round the corner is great. Not as good as Massive Attack tho.

Beetje duistere muziek. Sommige nummers, zoals "Hell Is Round The Corner", hebben wel iets.

Not really sure what that was. Electronica??

Good but not for me

Not too far from horrible

I have never heard of this artist or album. From the album art and track titles, I expect some kind of grunge or metal, maybe something like an off-brand Smashing Pumpkins. Oh no, it's some kind of breathy trip-hop. Ugh. Also reading other reviews I twigged that I had heard of Tricky before, as part of Massive Attack on Blue Lines, which I also didn't like, and that I had heard Black Steel before. I liked another reviewer who said: "The question is: Is trip-hop chilled or actually just boring?" Quite so. Nothing happens in any of these tracks. Sounds like it would be perfect to listen to in a sweaty basement club in the mid-90s while high, but for me this is one for the dustbin, and one for the "never listen again" pile also. Two stars, and that's a generous two stars.

Electronic noise has gotten far since The Beatles.

Outside of the single, this seems like a mostly uninteresting, uninspired piece of forgotten 90s media that I don't think I've heard anyone mention even once. I will do my best to uphold this time-honored tradition; just like Robert Dimery upholds his tradition of including albums on this list that contain exactly one memorable song.

Levy jää jumiin omiin pohdintoihinsa - toki omalla tavallaan ja välillä jopa energisesti - mutta paikoin skipattavasti.

Not for me.

It's not really good.

It's okay and I can picture that there are people who enjoy this kind of music very much, but it's not for me. I mean, I didn't hate it.

First solo album. British hip hop, urban, groove vibes. Main vocals by Martina Topley Bird. Sounds a bit like Lilly Allen before Lilly Allen. Some good lyrics like in the track Black Steel. It's okay, solid enough album but just not my thing. Decent production.

Artiste inconnu. Les morceaux sont terriblement répétitifs, sauf certains qui sont un peu plus intéressants car plus variés (Black Steel [+1]). Mais il y en a trop peu ... Quel ennui ! =>2/5

OK. Not really my kind of music - but not bad. Pretty decent background music. I'd say 2.5, I will round down.

ehhhh

Nope

After hearing Portishead’s Third I thought hey maybe I like trip hop. Apparently I just like Portishead, because I didn’t like this at all. The Public Enemy cover was surprising and the only good song in the album. When your only good song is a cover that’s not a good sign.

I know Tricky is one of the biggest trip-hop artists, but the only song I really knew was "Excess" from the Queen of the Damned soundtrack. I've always loved that song (and I just found out Alanis Morissette is on that track — what?!), so I had high hopes for this album. Unfortunately, while it starts out decent, it didn't really hold my interest after about the third song. I've never been a huge fan of groups like Massive Attack or Goldfrapp, and this album didn't change my mind. The music and beats start to become repetitive, and a lot of the lyrics seem like he's trying too hard to be edgy. Martina Topley-Bird's vocals are great throughout, and there are a few catchy songs, but it was overall meh for me. 2.5/5

4/10

Sounds like radio station background music. Like a mix of Massive Attack and Gorillaz. Very '90's London sounding. The smoother and mellower answer to '90's industrial music. I like Portishead better though. This is too slow and grimy.

Kind of depressing, moody electronic music that starts interesting and moving, but just turns mysterious and eccentric in an annoying and constant loop. The song "Strugglin" has this awful nails on the chalkboard sample or instrumental 1.5 rounded to 2

Not really my thing.

Objectively, this album was pretty dense and unique, with lots of original ideas and beats. Personally, I kind of hated it. We’ll split the difference.

One of the less exciting albums. I wouldn’t say it’s boring but it’s almost as boring as Houmous & Chutney’s infamously and purposefully boring album ‘This is Less Than Exciting (It’s Boring)’ 2.4

does nothing for me. I’d maybe listen to black steel again but overall it reminds me of the bobs burgers indie singer singing about oil spills as a metaphor for her vagina

2.16

First song was okay-ish. Not my genre. Very repetitive, so gets boring over time. Maybe as background music.

I’m not loving this and yet another middle of the road album where I don’t hate it. I think, even though I hate them, that this would be better suited as an instrumental album. The music hits fairly hard. I think the vocals tone it down too much. Not enough intensity in her voice. Hell is Round the Corner stands out. I’m mean really stands out. This album could also have been better if Tricky took the lead more. The songs where his vocals dominated seem to be the best. Choice cut: Hell is Round the Corner

Favorite track: Hell is round the corner. Overall score: 4.2/10

This felt a lot longer than 57 minutes long. There were times when Tricky channels Massive Attack really well, and the more Martina Topley Bird we get, the better. Overall though, an album that was one to get through, appreciate the highs, and consign to the dustbin of time.

Not my genre

Fahrstuhlmusik

This album should be nowhere near this list.

Early hip hop, with next-to-no swearing - hardly a nigger or motherfucker to be heard. But heavy, semi-industrial beats are often too high in the mix, overwhelming whatever music might lie underneath. But it doesn't make much difference to me because I don't like this anyway. It's not terrible, just... meh.

3/10 - idk I just don’t think I like the genre. Also I though the woman singing was the main artist until Lucas said it wasn’t

OK background music. "Hell is around the corner" is decent, but not great! Not really melodic enough for me.

Not really my thing but good for what it is

Liked it at first, sort of gave me a Portishead vibe. But I wasn’t listening too closely for the first couple tracks, it was just background music. Once I was able to focus on it and started hearing lyrics I got tired of it really quick.

Ok sound.

This album has two kinds of songs: esoteric bordering on incomprehensible, or decent. A lot of the songs feel over-produced and reek of "how many effects can we overlay into each song?" The best tracks are more pared down and and actually have a vibe; which is unfortunately a minority of the total songs. Top tracks: Black Steel, Pumpkin, Feed Me

I kind of understand why this is on the list, but it became tedious quickly. Most of the songs were too long and repetitive to listen to on their own without becoming boring or overdone. Not the worst thing, but I didn’t care for this for the most part.

Based off the title this is not what I thought I’d be listening to

hey what if we make a daft punk album but even shittier

Tricky - Maxinquaye I’m quite into trip hop but around half way through this album, I felt like it had fallen into the common trip hop trap of getting just a little repetitive and tiring. It’s alright but I can’t say I think people should hear it before they die!

More hip hop.

I get it, but I also don't. Trip hop is such an interesting genre conceptually but It's very hard for me to get really into it past enjoying a couple songs here and there. The first half really had me vibing (though I have no clue what Black Steel is doing on this record), but the second half had me "Strugglin'" (which was my least favorite song on the album by a mile). Favorites were Hell is Round The Corner, Aftermath, and Brand New You're Retro

Album 627 of 1001 Tricky - Maxinquaye (1995) Rating : 2.25 / 5 Mostly more of the electronica I don't really care for but several tunes did have some melody to them and weren't too bad. One of the higher rated albums in the genre, for my taste.

Wow, this one went from slightly interesting to bland to properly annoying really quickly.

Didn't like, didn't hate.

Some British trip hop from the early 90s. Not too many things I could be less interested in. This is fine, probably a "you had to be there" type thing. But man it feels pretty inessential.

The first track was kind of spooky and there were some tracks that were intriguing. Didn't catch my fancy and can't say I connected with it.

What the hell was this It started off alright - not my type of thing but the beats were decent and it was pleasant enough. Then after a few songs, the lyrics started getting weirder and weirder. And by the end of the album there were random bird noises and odd things Abbaon Fat Tracks was the song where I really thought wtf am I listening to here. "I fuck you in the ass, just for a laugh" ??? 2 ⭐️

I was excited when this came up but i wasnt after 2 runs through. Trip Hop was abd is great and i think Massive Attack and Portishead have aged beautifully, but this seemed all vibe and little substance. The dark and brooding beats are ok and the singing is good but it lacked substance. I swear he had s big hit single to hand the rest of the album off but couldnt find it.

Didn't do it for me, good in places but I got bored

At first it sounded like one of the spice girls got drunk and wanted to venture off on her own and find herself as an artist. After that it wasn't too bad but there wasn't anything earth-shattering that told me to ever listen to it again. Another British breakthrough album that us Yankees just don't understand.

Wasn’t into it. Some tracks I started to enjoy but just wasn’t feeling the energy.

Not for me

Trip hop not my thing.

This reminds me a lot of Portishead, and theoretically that would be a good thing because I love Portishead. However, this just feels like a really cheap copy of them and this album is far too long and repetitive.

eh

High 2. Decent productivity music.

Me gustan un poco las canciones donde cana la mujer. Me dejó de gustar del todo cuando el disco se puso hiphopero. No me gustó la voz del cantante.

Да ну нафиг этот ваш трип-хоп.

Black Steel // 1.5/5

It started ok then got annoying by the end.

Didn’t quite enjoy this

Overcome 2.1 Ponderosa 2.2 Black Steel 2.2 Hell Is Round the Corner 2 Pumpkin 2 Aftermath 2.2 Abbaon Fat Tracks 2.4 Brand New You're Retro 2 Suffocated Love 2.1 You Don't 2 Strugglin' 1.8 Feed Me 2 Score: 2.083333333

I really liked the beats and tracks but Tricky's vocals/rapping was weak. His lyrics were odd and were delivered in a sort of bored mumble. Would have been much better as an instrumental album.

Didn’t bother finishing the album

Not sure how this is as boring as it is but here we are

Ehhhhhhhh 2.5 stars

This started out like a whiny boring album, but Brand New Your Retro was a good change of pace. Then we went back to boring and whiny. Not for me.

This was a bit tricky. There was quite a bit that I liked about this sonically. The vibe, the kind of spooky nature at times. It felt a little sloppy, with a bit more polish could be better. At the end nothing stayed with me.

This was a pleasant surprise - I quite liked the first couple of tracks, especially "Overcome", but less so the later tracks where the tempo picks up. Possibly trip hop is more to my taste than regular hip hop. Voted 2 but more a 2.5.

Wikipedia quoted someone suggesting that this album is the equivalent of the Sistine Chapel of electronica, and if so, let's put this genre to bed. While there is a nice vide going on, very little stands out as unique. If you left this album on repeat, you would quickly lose track of where you are. Bland.

Fun album with songs ranging from electronic covers of popular songs to make-out tracks. Favorite track: Black Steel other picks: hell os round the corner, aftermath, overcome, brand new

At times it grips me and I get it and at other points it loses me, over all not a hip-hop album that I favor.

Weird

It wasn't the worst record I've ever heard; just not for me. 2.5 stars

Fine, I guess, but I didn't really care for it.

I could've lived my life happy without listening to this. So no, not something I need to hear.

The first track actually was a decent song. However it went downhill very quickly after that, becoming irritating after about the third track.

Favorite Track: Black Steel

Trip hop is cool but this was too repetitive for me

Meh. Not the right kind of weird for my tastes. 2.0

Tricky isn't exactly my bag of tea, but this record is undeniably unique

Noteworthy songs - 808080808 Magical Dream - Kinda catchy synth, but the rest is bland. Ancodia - Good background noise. Cobra Bora - Actually kind of cool, reminds me of Bomberman Hero. Pacific 202 - N64 vibes, but melody isn't great. Donkey Doctor - Nothing too special, weird ending. 808080808 - Really cool beginning. A little slow in the middle but stays interesting enough. Sunrise - Nothing remarkable. The Fat Shadow - Eerie. Very short.

Weird

Quando descobri que Tricky é um do integrantes do Massive Attack fiquei bem animado, acho que o Blues lines foi um dos primeiros álbuns que dei 5 estrelas por aqui. Porém quando comecei a ouvir, achei devagar e repetitivo, além de ter um vocal bastante irritante às vezes. Ele tenta criar uma atmosfera sombria (e talvez meio sexual?) mas não chega lá. Tive que parar no meio pra terminar de ouvir depois. Quando voltei para terminar no dia seguinte achei um pouco melhor. Algumas ideias interessantes de samples e instrumentais, e a voz da cantora é muito bonita (mesmo ficando irritante pelo jeito de cantar). No geral achei cansativo e não voltaria à ouvir, com exceção de 2 ou 3 músicas.

2/5 dig some of the soundscapes, but ultimately not really might taste.

2/3

2/5

Tbh skipped thru some of these songs. It’s cool but it’s not rly for me at the moment. I think this one is on the list cuz of a few hits, and I liked those, but otherwise much filler to be had.

A couple of OK tracks. Pretty groovy at times. I tended to prefer the songs with mixed vocals as opposed to the solo Martina tracks. I enjoyed a couple songs but overall relatively "meh". 2.31 stars

"Overcome" was really cool. "Ponderosa" was good. "Black Steel" is unexpected and sort of cheesy, kind of sounds like mid-2000's 3D Sonic the Hedgehog music, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. "Hell Is Round The Corner" samples Portishead and that feels weird to me. Maybe it's because both the sample and Tricky's song with the sample were released very close to each other and are both generally categorized as important trip hop albums. It's not like there are rules to sampling, but sampling trip hop in trip hop feels counter-intuitive. (I don't know, maybe) I'm crazy and nitpicking. "Pumpkin" and "Aftermath" – smoky bar music, nice atmosphere. So far the instrumentation lies on a little bed of cracks and crisps, which I really enjoy, Maxinquaye isn't lo-fi, but the artefacts, the cloudy texture adds great character to Maxinquaye. From "Abbaon Fat Tracks" to "You Don't" the record is nice trip hop music, but nothing to write home about. I find "Strugglin'" to be another noteworthy peak on the album. In my opinion there were a few songs too many in the second half of the album and could've have been cut from the whole. It's an okay record, but overall emotions are something between neutral and bored. 2/5.

That's not my taste in Musik.

Starts strong, but it's not enough for a full album. Samples sound random and unconnected. Favorite song: overcome.

Eher etwas für die Chillout-Longe. So nichts für mich.

Cool, more British triphop. Rounding up because it was marginally more interesting then the last couple.

Might need a couple more listens, seemed underwhelming

Forgettable. Better than what the description made it seem.

I'm a big fan of Portishead and Massive Attack when it comes to Trip-Hop, but I've never been able to get into this album. I find it meandering and uninteresting, even for background music. I don't find the music offensive to the ears or anything, but I do believe this album is overrated. 2/5.

It’s a vibe, maybe just not my vibe. But pretty good

Another never heard of album / band. The Apple Music version seems to be missing a few tracks, no complaints here. Still, for a genre I’m not a fan of, this wasn’t a bad once in a lifetime listen.

Holy shit I just do not care. For one I can barely hear anything anyone is saying on this album. For another it plays more like a sound collage or some kind of techno/dance album at times more than a rap album, which is what Wikipedia calls it. Personally I don’t know what this is and I really don’t care. It is, for the most part, boring as well. I don’t care how good the lyrics are (they actually didn’t seem bad from what I read on Spotify for some songs), but the delivery is too Lofi for its own good. I know Tricky was part of Massive Attack, and I know people fucking LOVE Massive Attack. But I just did not get this at all. Not for me. Top heavy album that fades toward the end. Another instance where I think an album made it on here because of its popularity in the UK, where the author is from, not because it’s an exceptional example of its genre. 2 stars. Boring. Oh and it’s weirdly sexual at times that really made me cringe. Please no more. You’re not as smart and edgy as you think you are. Standout tracks: Overcome, Black Steel, Hell is Round the Corner

Trip Hop isn't really my thing but I respect it and in turn respect Tricky, he's definitely a character and music is all the better for him being around. This album has it's moments.

Way too sleepy for me.

Another one of this genre??? I liked it well enough