Customer Reviews
Knowle West Boy is Wonderful! - By: J. Carter, 13 Aug 2008 
This album is amazing whether you are a Tricky fan or not. After seeing him perform two tracks from this album on Later with Jools i couldn't wait for it's release! I wasn't disappointed. If this album was only half as good i still wouldn't have been. It's got everything. Council Estate has an energy i haven't heard or felt since Punk & Two Tone were born. Puppy Toy is a really strong song - it's funny too! Veronika is Powerful because of it's starkness & the lyrics, & it grows on you. C'mon Baby is one of my favourites becouse it's so catchy without being naff & has great lyrics! Buy This Album if you're a fan, try it if you're not!
Tricky,s mish-mash nod to the mainstream album...very enjoyable it is too. - By: russell clarke, 07 Aug 2008 
Few artists can manage to make music that veers from maverick left field commerciality to the outer limits of miscreant self indulgence. While he's to be applaudedin theory for the latter the results have usually made me want to clap my hands over my ears rather than bring them togetherin appreciation. Thankfully Knowles West Boy( named after the areain Bristol where he grew up ) his first album for five years see's Tricky returnin many ways to the more mercantile material of his seminal debut Maxinquaye.
Not that this album can be classed as the trip -hop of thatin some ways millstone of an album. Knowles West Boy covers ragga - "Baligaga" & "Bacative" with Rodigan on vocals, Grinderman type sweaty rock with "C, Mon Baby" , a curious & fascinating folk/country , urban opera hybrid with "School Gates" while opening track "Puppy Toy" is a playful piano led duet with Alex Mills alternating between Lily Allen style observations & Christina Aguilera vocal pyrotechnics.s .
Other guest vocalists see ex-girlfriend Lubna on "Past Mistake "- the song that most easily invokes his past -with widescreen keyboards over deliberate percussion & woozy vocals underpinned by Tricky,s mumbling. It's great . So is Veronika with steely vocals by errr Veronika over itchy backing & precise subterranean percussion. "Council Estate" throws a curve ball by starting off like Portisheads "Roads" before turning all urgent & raspy like Renegade Soundwave crossed with "Xtrmntr " period Primal Scream. "Cross To Bear" is a far more delicate number with adroitly picked acoustic notes , scraping strings & a lovely keening vocal from Hafdis. "Far Away" centring on an addictive & rather funky string arrangement & rasping guitar even nods to the dance floor. "Joseph" with an unnamed busker on vocals is a pretty acoustic ballad of strangely magnetic power.
The cover of Kylies "Slow" is a mis-step because it's done so straight- a radical slowed f***ed up version would have been far more interesting & "Coalition" is just a tedious mush of beats & effects. Personally though I think the quality outweighs the dross on this album. There are half a dozen tracks that will always be welcome on my MP3 player & while some of the songs have to catch mein the right mood -the ragga ones for instance- they are not as irritating as a lot of ragga can be..apologies to any hardcore ragga fans .
I suspect , indeed I know from reading some reviews that Knowles West Boy is considered too playful & colourful by many . It lacks the depth & sonic innovation of his greatest stuff but it is , for the most part ,hugely enjoyable..... A substantial treatin fact. I see nothing wrong with that. Indeed far better this than some un-listenable elitist miscible tripe that gives a select few & superior critics major hard-ons but baffles the rest of us.
What do you expect? - By: D. Mills, 25 Jul 2008 This is classic Tricky - forget trip-hop, portishead, MA blah blah blah labels - if you find some connection with Tricky's previous material, for whatever reason, you'll enjoy listening to this latest offering.
Personally, I hope Tricky will continue to produce material like this, which has his trademark sound all over it.
Another reviewer commented 'same old previously trodden path' - well, yeah - but the path is long & hopefully there's plenty more miles to walk.
Old paths re-trodden. - By: zerxan, 14 Jul 2008 
Nothing here that hasn't been done before. If this is Tricky exorcising his demons, then plenty have done better. This is the sound of fury, signifying nothing, to paraphrase Shakespeare. Before you know it, this album is over. It's just a wash of sonics, with no discernible purpose other than to satisfy some need within Tricky's oeuvre. This is the sound of the middle-aged man trying to sound valuablein his decline. Some people need to be told that when it's over, it's over (refer Bowie, Scott Walker, & all those others "stiff on their legends").
It may be a cliche but this is a real return to form - By: S. Graves, 09 Jul 2008 I have been an avid follower of Tricky since Maxinquaye, which most people deem his finest moment. Although I do think Maxinquaye is a great album I really feel Tricky began maturing with Blowback & Vulnerable, he has been finding his feet & losing that hit & miss approach, creating an instantly recognisable 'Tricky' sound, & at the same time sticking two fingers up to those that wanted Maxinquaye MKII.
This album see Tricky creating more disjointed beats & bleeps, low growls & sweet females, mixing political rants (Coalition) against long forgotten teenage angst (School Gates).
I know every release is touted as a return to form but this album is truly the strongest material he has ever released, its not easy listening & those wanting Bristolian coffee table trip hop should go elsewhere. Its Tricky & Tricky only.
He even provides another slightly odd cover, this time Kylie Minogues 'Slow'
If you dont believe me try Coalition & Cross To Bear... wonderful...
