Tricky - Council Estate

Just when it seemed like he’d been lost forever in the murk of paranoia, Tricky re-emerges from the dark.

His new single opens with a brief and cheeky Portishead sample before blasting off with screeching guitars, choppy beats and head fuck fx. Now resident in the US, Tricky is revisiting his Bristol past but where once his lyrics were enveloped in a poetic fog of distorted images and warped perspective, now it seems brightly crass and banal. Similarly the hard rocking music doesn’t have the cool detachment of his thrashing take on Black Steel. More Limp Bizkit than Public Enemy.