Pre-Millennium Tension

Pre-Millennium Tension is the least ingratiating record Tricky made, cut in Jamaica and sounding like a fever, all heat and paranoia and refusal. Where Maxinquaye seduced, this one keeps the listener at arm's length on purpose, and the discomfort is the achievement. It ranks at eighty-five because that difficulty limits its reach, but as a document of an artist following his instincts straight into the dark, it's uncompromising and singular.