In May last year, Tricky’s daughter died at the age of 24. “It feels like I’m in a world that doesn’t exist, knowing nothing will ever be the same again,” the Bristolian producer wrote on Facebook in the aftermath. “No words or text can really explain — my soul feels empty.”
It’s a grief that blackens the mood of Fall To Pieces, an album of short tracks that often end abruptly, emerging and disappearing like bursts of half-awake anxiety during a night of restless sleep. The lyrics are, for the most part, terse snatches of an inner monologue, open to interpretation, but on occasion wincingly plain: “What a f***ing game/I hate this f***ing pain,” he whispers over an austere piano loop on Hate This Pain.
Polish vocalist Marta Złakowska features on most of the album, singing with elegance and a fitting sorrow, tying together Tricky’s incongruent productions, which range from dark house grooves to drawling twangs of beatless bass.
It’s a dour listen but it’s compelling, a window into the mind of an artist trying to work through something incomprehensible.
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