Sound: Knowle West Boy jumps from one style to the next with reckless abandon. It includes rock (sleazy/bluesy, stomping/arena-friendly and frantic/electro), pop (string-driven/mystical or spacey/sweet) and electronic (which incorporates Jamaican dancehall toasting, sensual trip-hop grooves, stomping tribal rhythms, dancefloor bombast and more). In order to cover all this territory, Tricky utilizes a wide range of male and female vocalists, while adding his own thick, English talk/raps from time to time.
Heavy Rotation tracks: “Cross To Bear”; “Veronika”
Medium Rotation tracks: “Bacative”; “Puppy Toy”; “Baligaga”; “Council Estate”
Recommended: The lack of any consistent vibe whatsoever makes Knowle West Boy a pretty jarring, disjointed listen, but you have to commend Tricky for pushing the envelope with each of these tracks and reining each experiment into a tight, accessible song. Several of them hit the mark, but a few just feel silly and out-of-place. Overall, this is a good collection of tracks to add to the deep Tricky catalogue, but it’s not a real cohesive album.
Grade: B