Tricky: Maxinquaye

THIS IS A brilliant record: densely layered, full of barely controlled nervous energy, paranoid under surveillance, at times more intimate than you’d wish – like an eavesdropped conversation between estranged lovers. Extrapolating from the intensely personal to the universal, Maxinquaye functions as a emotional litmus paper – blue for deep, dysfunctional depression ("brain wants me to"), red for transforming anger.