Customer Reviews

Maxinquaye

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

When you first look at the CD case, you're struck by it's cover; is it a suitcase or a door or something burned? What the heck is this? It begins a mystery. You put the CD into your player, expecting something, and almost immediately, the dark resonating beats of the first track "Overcome" hit you in a face. It sonically rolls over you hypnotically, sexual yet the heavy bass and dismembered flutes and samples give it an all too deep, heavy apocalytic feel. And that's only the beginning.

Here comes Tricky, former Massive Attack and Wild Bunch collaborator, straight from the hip-hop hedonism of "Blue Lines" and the soncially diverse "Protection." Armed with samples, ideas, angst and crooner Martine's whispy soulful voice, he gives you an album that refuses to leave you at the end.

Call it trip-hop or abstract electronica...it all seems undescribable by how many styles are weaved into this album; so seamless and flowing are they that you wonder how someone could have thought of it.

There's "Black Steel," a remake of Public Enemy's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos," yet instead of using Chuck D's bullish activism, Martine makes the song sound so desperate until it feels that there can't be any escape from it. The slow rap of "Hell is Around the Corner" under the Isacc Hayes samples is downright eerie, while "Aftermath" feels like you're floating on air in the tropics; its hip-hop/blues fusion runs flawless.

But there's still blood on the tracks. "Brand New, Your Retro" is straight out hip-hop/electronic/industrial, angry and never ending. The final track, "Feed Me," leaves you at the end of the album just like how you entered it with a deep bass line and hard hitting beats, fading away slowy to leave you at the end of a rollercoaster, yet still intact and wanting to listen to it again.

Despite the few 'up' moments in this album and the constant dark feel of it all, it fails to isolate the listener, who's always anxious to hear more of what our tortured friend Tricky does next.

as an owner of every album tricky has done i have to say "maxinquaye" is the best. some of the most hypnotic beats i've ever heard, tricky's voice combined with martina's is just a unique sound, and lyrically these are some of the most awsome words i've ever read, tricky here talks about such themes as sex, power and other usual issues but he doesn't do it in the usual way, not as explicit, but always clever. the best track here is definetely "Aftermath", i heard it and fell in love with it inmediatly, it has great beats, and martina at her best. the only track i don't like here is "stugglin", it just isn't at the same level as the rest of the album, it could have been in "angels with diry faces" (and still would have been one of the worst tracks) other favourites are: hell is..., you don't, ponderosa, black steel, well the whole album is great.

Former Massive Attack member, Tricky, strikes gold with his debut CD, Maxinquaye. This album has an almost surreal effect to it. The fact that the lyrics can be undistinguishable at times adds to that effect. Each track has its own mood to it and this is a CD that you will not get bored listening to. All the tracks are excellent but especially, Overcome, Black Steel, Abbaon Fat Track, and Strugglin'. If you are getting into trip-hop then you must buy this CD. Especially recommended for those who have all 3 Massive Attack CDs and Dummy by Portishead.

This was probably the most groundbreaking debut album of 1995. On the first listen no-one probably really dug it. The percussion sounded like no other drum known to mankind, the guy whose name's on the cover starts (kinda) singing only on the fourth track and even then it's some low non-melodic beat thingie, and the girl who sings most lyrics sounds (kinda) beautiful but that was so damn quirky. Those who remembered 1993 well immediately thought of Björk (later there really was a connection - Tricky produced parts of her excellent "Post" album that came out the same year). Basically that was twisted rap and soul. Outstanding tracks: "Pumpkin" with it's improvised gibberish vocals and quiet 3/4 beat, "Overcome" with it's electronic instrumentation, "Black Steel" - a "Public Enemy" song turned into speed metal. Good marketing and beautiful videos (Tricky later told he hates them) made this album sell more than half a milli! on. It became one of 90's most influential albums, proclaiming the electronica revolution; to put it simpler, dozens of other artists copied its ideas, so Tricky, true to his love of risks and experimentalism, dumped them and moved on to produce his later, much trickier - and much better records. Thus, compared to his 1996 "Pre-Millenium Tension", "Maxinquaye" is pure pop.

I am so glad I bought this CD. Tired of the top 40 crap that is played to death, I wanted something different and I definitely found it in Maxinquaye.
The music has a dark and sensual vibe to it. Trip hop is such an accurate description of Tricky's music. The vibe created here, takes you to a place where you can just chill and let the music carry you away.

I am a lousy reviewer, but this cd is amazing. If you love dark, moody and sensual music, this is definitely a purchase I recommend.

After owning this album since 1996, I can safely say...This is the best album I own. Hands down.

The first time I heard this, my friends and i were driving in the dark. I was sitting in the backseat of the car, they had me stick the cd in on the potable boombox in the back. We had been talking, as we slipped around the winding roads and past the trees and scant houses.

The minute the CD went into the player, I was ovewhelmed....surpised. Conversation dropped off and the night seemed to come into the car from the outside, big and blue, the moon gaining pressure and pushing against my eyes. It was like I could have been another country and it would have still made me feel this way. The music made me go outwards and inwards all at once. We were driving through the forest to the beach. We arrived to Newport, The trees dropping behind us and the storefront taking their place. The beats and the soundscapes were so perfect. Since then i have listened to this CD several other times at night, in a car as well as at home.

That is when it struck me. I am a music freak, one who believes that a certain CD or a certain band will be perfect in a certain occasion. Usually i will have a seperate preferance for what music sound good driving through the forrest and what sounds good driving through a city. This, however, flowed through all of it. This CD seems to me to be greatest at night. I think it the sensualness, the implied tension and power, the rythm, the beautiful "oiliness" of the sound. It is the best driving music i have ever heard. It seems to pull you, and the car, with it, instead of the other way around.

So next time you get in your car and the sun is setting, pop this album into your player. Whether you live in the big city or in the boondocks, it manages to make sense in an abstract and beautiful way.

Don't listen to the people who don't like it cos it's one of the very best you can find.No matter if you like trip-hop or don't even know what it is, Maxinquaye is a must-have.No matter if you like male or female vocalists, rock or dance music, you won't be disappointed.
Every single song is more than brilliant,apart from 'strugglin' which is just good.Martina's very feminine vocals and Tricky's dark samples fit to each other perfectly as you hear in the beginner 'overcome'.
From there on, you just want more and more. Maxinquaye is not as depressive as Tricky's later works, it really keeps you up the whole day.It's even got a punk song, a cover of Public Enemy's 'black steel'.'Abbaon fat tracks' is a song to enjoy when you're alone or with your girlfriend while 'you dont' has a bit of party atmosphere.I think this album is also good for listening
in your CD player while you're roaming the city or whatever.I recommend it to everyone who're looking for gems to fill their cd collection or simply wanna hear some fresh, brilliant music.
In this case more than brilliant

Coming out of collaboration with Massive Attack, Tricky was clearly bursting with ideas of his own. On Maxinquaye he sticks to a trip-hop bluieprint, ironically nicking Karma Coma's lyrics for the brooding 'Overcomes' and even sampling Portishead's 'Glory Box' - one of the classic triphop songs - on 'Hell Is Round The Corner'. Yet he infuses the sound with a dark, understated urban menace and with singer Martina Topley-Bird he creates sweltering, sexy grooves that sometimes, as on 'Abbaon Fat Tracks', descend into pure erotica. She has a sultry, alternative voice which complements his laidback rapping style very well, both of them sounding very British. Its an intriguing combination though its a shame that he doesnt take the mic and go solo more often. His only real freestyle rap comes on the almost old-skool hip-hop of 'Brand New You're Retro'.

Occasionally as on 'Strugglin' they wander astray without a tune and it makes for a somewhat routine track, acceptable as a 2-minute filler but unbearable stretched into 6 and 1/2 minutes. Yet there's more than enough to make up for it: the masterpiece of paraonoia that is an inspired cover of 'Black Steel', Topley-Bird's voice awash in aggressive guitars and gritty production. Her voice is an acquired taste, especially on tracks like 'Ponderosa' where her sound is totally Estuary, but its nicely broken up by the lush 'Pumpkin' which takes the ingenious tactic of marrying a Massive Attack-style backing track to Orbital (and, after this album, Goldfrapp) vocalist Alison Goldfrapp and a brooding Smashing Pumpkins sample. Also, when the tracks are as good as 'You Don't' which is reggae-tinged and almost like the Horace Andy tracks on 'Blue Lines' its churlish to complain.

Ultimately, Maxinquaye is not only a trip-hop masterpiece but an urban classic. Highly reccomended to fans of not just triphop but those new to the genre or mainstream hip-hop fans.

Maxinquaye just blew my mind the first time I heard it. Overcome is the most hypnotic song I've ever heard. Tricky is a musical genius. He did a good job by getting my attention with the first song. I first thought that no other song on the album could compete with overcome, I was wrong.