Pre-Millennium Tension

Pre-Millennium Tension
Studio album by Tricky
Released 11 November 1996
Recorded Grove Studios, Ocho Rios, Jamaica during 1996
Genre Trip hop, experimental
Length 47:21
Label Island/PolyGram Records
Producer Tricky
Tricky chronology

Nearly God
(1996)		 Pre-Millennium Tension
(1996)		 Angels with Dirty Faces
(1998)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
Robert Christgau A−[2]
Entertainment Weekly B−[3]
Pitchfork Media 8.0/10[4]
RapReviews 8.5/10[5]
Q [6]
Rolling Stone [7]
Spin [8]

Pre-Millennium Tension is the second[9][10] album from Tricky, released in 1996.

Album Background

Tricky originally said in an interview with Ray Gun in October 1996 that he wanted to make an "out-an-out punk record" to get away from the trip hop label. He said, "I thought it was going be heavier... What I wanted to do was a total fast album. Some of the tracks are fast and hard, but they didn't come out like that."[10]

Album Production

The album was mainly recorded in Jamaica, and other parts were recorded at Platinum Islands Studio, New York. It was recorded & mixed by Ian Caple recorded in Grove Studios, Ocho Rios, Jamaica & mixed at El Cortijo Studio in Spain. The album features longtime collaborator Martina Topley-Bird, and former Mama's Boys guitarist Pat McManus.

Track listing

No. TitleSample Length
1. "Vent"    3:04
2. "Christiansands"  "La Di Da Di" (Doug E Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew) 3:52
3. "Tricky Kid"  "Zoom" (The Commodores) 4:11
4. "Bad Dreams"  "Housebound" (The Specials) 4:12
5. "Makes Me Wanna Die"  "Beats for the Listeners" (Eric B. & Rakim) 4:02
6. "Ghetto Youth"    5:37
7. "Sex Drive"    3:51
8. "Bad Things"    5:12
9. "Lyrics of Fury"  "King" (Slick Rick) 3:21
10. "My Evil Is Strong"  "Sound Bwoy Bureill" (Smif-n-Wessun) 3:59
11. "Piano"    4:14

Track notes

Album reception

It was included in Q Magazine's 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time.[11]

External links

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ Robert Christgau review
  3. ↑ http://test.ew.com/ew/article/0,,295095,00.html
  4. ↑ Pitchfork Media review
  5. ↑ http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/BTTL_pretension.html
  6. ↑ Q (12/96, p.138) – 4 Stars (out of 5) – "...Conventional instruments like pianos or harmonicas jostle with found sounds over ferocious rhythm tracks in an unsettling soundscape where anything can happen, providing it's knuckle-clenching and sweat-inducing....Uneasy yet undeniably brilliant..."
  7. ↑ Rolling Stone review
  8. ↑ Spin (12/96, p.139) – 9 (out of 10) – "...Inspired rather than threatened by hip-hop, Tricky tosses it off like a Stussy cape....At his most compelling, Tricky calls everything into question, including himself....his music, a collage of gasping beats and forlorn chords, speaks beyond words..."
  9. ↑ "Biography included in the Pre-Millennium Tension presskit". Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 The Madness of King Tricky I - Raygun 96
  11. ↑ "Q Magazine's 50 Heaviest Albums". Retrieved 14 February 2008.