Maxinquaye [EXPLICIT LYRICS]

Tricky

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 18, 1995)
• Original Release Date: April 18, 1995
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Label: Island
• ASIN: B000001E7V
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #30,626 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  #7 in	Music > Rap & Hip-Hop > International Rap
  #16 in	Music > Imports > Rap & Hip-Hop

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Less experimentally brash than his more recent release, Tricky's debut CD Maxinquaye is actually a better introduction to the British hip-hopper turned international trip-hopper than his later work. The dozen smoldering, moonlit tracks are less concerned with loopy aural exaggeration than they are with showcasing Tricky's slow-mo rap and singer Martine's sexy soprano. With the exception of the stellar "Pumpkin," (featuring vox from Alison Goldfrapp), the duo mix a colorful palate of rhythmic vocals, throbbing backbeats and gravelly electronic textures. Toss in large doses of sexual innuendo and Maxinquaye becomes a libidinous foray into languor and lust. --Nick Heil

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just simply Amazing!, May 6, 2000

By	Un Anglophile (Davis, California, USA) - See all my reviews

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.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Trip-Hop Album, September 17, 2001

By	Manny Ramirez - See all my reviews

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trip-hop is not real, Tricky is!, November 9, 1999

By A Customer

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.