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Melody Maker once declared that “Tricky can never be overlooked. He’s (literally) incomparable, and he’s necessary.” His 1995 debut album Maxinquaye is testament to that statement as far as I’m concerned and is a timeless album I’ll always be glad to own.
In February 1996 Tricky released his unofficial second album, Nearly God, a self-titled record released under the pseudonym Nearly God; the title originating from an interview in which Tricky was asked, “So how does it feel to be God…well, nearly god.”
Described by Tricky as a compilation of exceptional yet unfinished demos, Nearly God was the result of a clause in his recording contract with Island Records, which allowed him to release an album once a year under a name other than his own. Tricky had already stated (of the record) that he “needed it to come out, but Island would never let me release two Tricky albums in the same year.” His official follow-up record Pre-Millennium Tension was released a year later.
Nearly God featured collaborations between Tricky and artists such as Alison Moyet, Björk, Neneh Cherry, Terry Hall and Martina Topley-Bird (who had worked with him on his previous album Maxinquaye and continued to work with him on future projects) and was a mixed bag of trip-hop and experimental sounds; most of which I like.
Stand-out track Poems been going round in my head for the last few days so, not one to ignore a prompt like this, I thought I’d share. It was one of those songs that got under my skin from the moment I first heard it all those years ago and it still does. I love its subdued, crestfallen execution and some of the lyrics still haunt me..in a good, shivery way! Check it out above and listen to more Tricky on my pages here.
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