Listening to Fall to Pieces is dark but compelling - about the most unconventional trip-hop album of 2020

Fall to Pieces is the fourteenth studio album by British trip-hop musician Tricky. The record was released on 4 September 2020.

The record features new guests in the form of Danish singer Oh Land and vocalist Marta Złakowska.

The album is based on a personally tragic event for Tricky - the death of his own daughter...

Who's Tricky?

Tricky (real name Adrian Toews) is a British trip-hop musician, one of the founders of the genre. Tricky is a vivid representative of the Bristol underground scene. His great success is due to his unique style of performance, which combines cantilena and recitative.

Though he's notoriously mysterious, the musician has been letting his guard down more and more lately. In 2019, his autobiography titled Hell is Right Around the Corner was released. In the book, Tricky talks about his upbringing, which was permeated with racism, crime and crushing losses ...

Today Tricky is a pioneer of trip-hop! Each of his works is characterised by a dark, very multi-layered musical style, in which genres such as hip-hop, alternative rock, ragga... are harmoniously intertwined.

In his long career (since 1994), Tricky has worked with many artists including Terry Hall, Björk, hip-hop group Gravediggaz, Grace Jones and PJ Harvey.

In May 2019, an irreparable tragedy struck the musician - his daughter Mina passed away... The girl suffered from depression for a long time and eventually committed suicide at the age of 24.

Tricky later wrote on his Facebook:

"It feels like I'm in a world that doesn't exist... I know nothing will ever be the same again. No words can explain the fact that my soul is empty..."

Album concept

This grief overshadows the mood of Fall To Pieces... The album consists of short tracks that end, appear and disappear again so abruptly, like bursts of half-awake restlessness during a restless night's sleep. The lyrics are, for the most part, brief snippets of the musician's own inner monologue. They are open to interpretation, but sometimes they are painfully simple: "What a fucking game! I hate this fucking pain."

Tracks

"Thinking Of" is the opening track from Fall To Pieces. It has a powerful character, but even that doesn't help to quell the depression that Tricky has come face to face with....

"Close Now" shows how harmoniously Tricky and Marta Złakowska's vocals intertwine... "Don't let it get you down" is a strong chant that successfully dilutes the sparse one-and-a-half minute track.

Playful soundscapes and off-the-cuff melodies from Danish singer Oh Land (aka Nanna Eland Fabricius) make the track "I'm In the Doorway" a relaxing respite from the heavy Fall to Pieces nature of...

The album's most solemn moment occurs on the song "Hate This Pain"! Here Tricky bravely reveals her most tender and vulnerable sides as she faces the reality of losing a child...

"Fall Please" is the artist's unapologetic take on pop music and is also the lead single from the album Fall to Pieces. Syncopated rhythms and a slightly industrial style make this track more edgy than most pop songs. Its catchiness is undeniable.

The sultry nature of "Like a Stone" gives way to the album's final two tracks, "Throws Me Around" and "Vietnam," which are impeccably constructed and deftly executed.

Experiments with sound

As personal as Tricky's grief was, his collaborators played a significant role in shaping the sound and feel of the album as a whole.

Marta Złakowska is an amazing vocalist that Tricky found during the European tour: the musician was left without a vocalist just before the premiere! That's when he was lucky enough to meet Marta, who saved a major tour from failure....

"I can tell right away when a person is aiming to get a star from the sky," Tricky commented on his choice, "But Martha absolutely doesn't care about fame! She just loves to sing, and that's her brilliance..."

It is worth emphasising that Marta does indeed have the perfect voice for a vocal performer of Trikki! Her spectral tones are reminiscent of a light trickle of smoke.....

There's no getting around the way Marie-Claire Schlameus's cello and Christoph Hahn's slide guitar creep through the arrangements with the sophistication of art snatchers....

It's a pity, however, that some of the album's electronic touches - that minimalistic drum pattern (for example in "Thinking Of") or the pale-sounding bass part in "I'm in the Doorway"... They seem rudimentary compared to the graceful accent of the rest of the record. But... in some cases electronic experimentation does play an important role!

Criticism

Overall, Fall to Pieces was warmly received by critics... The album received many positive reviews and an average score of 73 out of 100 from numerous reviews in various publications.

Conclusion...

Tricky acts more as a producer here, as most of the tracks are performed by Polish vocalist Marta Zlakowska.

Overall, Fall to Pieces can be characterised as a "defiant cry of the soul" that eventually finds the strength to break out, while its other "bearers" may forever shut themselves in...

Listening to Fall to Pieces is bleak but compelling. This album is a kind of window into the mind of an artist trying to work through something tragic and defiant... This is one of Tricky's most coherent and interesting albums to date: he has masterfully turned his grief into a work of art that gives immense comfort to those who seek it....