The Clouds Were Grey And The Sun Was Bright

Tricky “I Had A Dream”

I feel bad for Tricky sometimes – so much of what he was doing two decades ago has been plundered by other artists, and writers rarely if ever give him credit for being so forward-thinking and influential. He really did himself in by becoming so prolific – that’s a surefire way to alienate casual listeners, especially when you have the bravery to fail and take a lot of weird risks. He keeps making new records, and the general response by my peers has been to do that thing where someone is knocking on your door and you stay totally silent until they give up and walk away. I have not been on board for a lot of what Tricky has done in the later stages of his career, but I do think he’s still good for a few strong songs per record. To some extent he’s spoiled his own reputation, but it’s just so aggravating that he can’t seem to get credit for the truly brilliant work he’s done in his career when an artist like FKA Twigs, who is nothing if not a flagrant Tricky tribute artist, is somehow seen as an innovator by people who don’t really know better. But this is true of Massive Attack and Aphex Twin too – so much of ‘90s electronic music has been recycled, and it’s almost always framed as FRESH and NEW by people with no frame of reference. Well, I guess now I know how all those original krautrock fans felt in the ‘90s.

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