Pre-Millennium Tension

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Pre-Millennium Tension
Studio album by Tricky
Released November 11, 1996 (1996-11-11)
Recorded ???
Genre Trip hop
Length 47:21
Label 4th & Broadway
Producer Tricky
Professional reviews
Tricky chronology
Nearly God
(1996)		 Pre-Millennium Tension
(1996)		 Angels with Dirty Faces
(1998)

Pre-Millennium Tension is the third album from Tricky, released in 1996. Following the unexpected success of Maxinquaye, Tricky made a much darker, more paranoid sonic landscape for this release, resulting in a more abrasive, and far less accessible album. It features longtime collaborator Martina Topley-Bird, and former Mama's Boy's guitarist Pat McManus. The album contains many various lyrical references to Rastafarianism. Examples include:

  • In the song "Tricky Kid", the lines "Here comes the Nazarene, look good in that magazine, Haile Selassie, they look after I", referring to Haile Selassie, an important figure to Rastafaris (who believe that he is God reincarnated)
  • In the song "Makes Me Wanna Die", the line "A small piece, an ism" referring to Rastafari's hatred of 'isms' and,
  • Very heavily throughout the song "Ghetto Youth", with heavy use of Rastafari slang such as:
    • "An' if a likkle fire ever get weh?" (If a little fire ever gets away)
    • "Mi' don know seh" (I already know that)
    • "Chu, mi nah lef' him at all" (I'm not leaving him at all)
    • "Gwan hol' tings" (Keep doing your thing) and,
    • "An' we ah out dessuh a bruk our hand and our neck fi yu'" (And we're out there breaking our hand and neck for you)
  • In a 1997 interview between journalist Liz Jones and Prince, Jones tells Prince he should listen to Tricky, because Tricky reminds her of Prince in his early career. Intrigued, Prince asks her the name of Tricky's latest album, she says "Pre-Millennium Tension" and Prince spontaneously answers "well, isn't that another way to say "1999"" (1999 being Prince's breakthrough album from 1982.) This interview is featured in Liz Jones' book "Slave To The Rhythm."
  • Tricky originally said in an interview with Raygun in October 1996 that he wanted to make an 'out-an-out punk record' and that "I thought it was going be heavier. I thought it was just going to be an out-an-out punk record. But you end up straying. What I wanted to do was a total fast album. Some of the tracks are fast and hard, but they did 't come out like that." He also said that he hated being stuck with the trip-hop tag so "That's why I did Nearly God, and that's why I did Pre-Millennium Tension. You can't see them as trip-hop albums. So I just keep running away from it. But the farther you run, it's still there. They'll find you."
  • The album was recorded at Grove Studios, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, possibly explaining the heavy Rastafarian influence on the album. Parts were also recorded at Platinum Islands Studio, New York.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Vent"
  2. "Christiansands"
  3. "Tricky Kid"
  4. "Bad Dreams"
  5. "Makes Me Wanna Die"
  6. "Ghetto Youth"
  7. "Sex Drive"
  8. "Bad Things"
  9. "Lyrics of Fury"
  10. "My Evil Is Strong"
  11. "Piano'"

[edit] External links

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