For someone as prolific as Tricky, I did a double take when I read that Different When It's Silent is his first solo album since Fall To Pieces in 2020.
But then, Tricky is also a prolific collaborator and the releases in between have been partnerships and projects, taking in Lonely Guest (2021), Fifteen Days (2024) with Mike Theis as Theis Thaws and Out The Way (2025), credited to long-time foil Marta Zlakowska alone, but very much a paired release.
And it's no surprise really that describing Different When It's Silent as a solo Tricky album is a red herring. Fellow Bristolian Mitch Sanders features up front on 12 of the 14 songs and, on current single I'm Yours, Tricky's vocal presence is heard only as a menacing background growl.
I'm Yours is a great song, Tricky and Mitch's sand-in-the-honey vocals an effective combination against the compelling bass and drums rhythm tracks, with counterpointing keys and guitar, the latter erupting into a fuzzy shower come the chorus. If I was a teen and this was playing at an alternative club night, I'd be straight on the floor, giving it some.
I'd same the same for previous single and album closer Out Of Place. Marta's sole vocal contribution to this album, with Tricky more prominent, their call and response exchanges are always something special and this is no exception.
The percussion is more insistent, with added strings and trilling samples and squelchy synths. The lyrics reference Tricky's daughter, who died suddenly in 2019, and is the link between Fall To Pieces and Different When It's Silent.
Fall To Pieces, released the year his daughter's death, was raw and visceral in its pain. The two singles from Different When It's Silent reflect Tricky in a different place, the pain and loss remain, but to paraphrase his own words, a person who has been emotionally paralysed finding the ability to move again.
Never one to stand still, the detour from one Tricky album to the next via his collaborations have clearly been critical steps in Adrian Thaws' journey. A real one-of-a-kind whose work is both catharsis and celebration, I am looking forward to hearing Different When It's Silent in full when it is released in a couple of weeks' time.
