''Blowback'' is the fifth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by English rapper and producer Tricky. It was released on 26 June 2001.

Background

The album features more accessible, popular song structures than his previous records. Tricky later said he "did ''Blowback'' for the money, basically 'cause I was broke". He recorded the album with guest musicians, including Red Hot Chili Peppers members

Flea Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, a ...

Anthony Kiedis Anthony Kiedis ( ; born November 1, 1962) is an American singer and songwriter. He is a founding member and lead vocalist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis and his fellow band members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fa ...

, Josh Klinghoffer, and John Frusciante; Cyndi Lauper,

Alanis Morissette Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with tw ...

Ed Kowalczyk Edward Joel Kowalczyk (; born July 16, 1971)"Edward Kowalczyk IMDb entry"
''

, and less known artists such as

Hawkman Hawkman is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Dennis Neville, the original Hawkman first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1, published by All-American ...

Stephanie McKay Stephanie McKay is an American soul singer and songwriter from the Bronx in New York, whose music includes elements of soul, funk, rock and hip hop. McKay's career has spanned over 20 years, during which time she has collaborated with artists ...

and

Ambersunshower Ambersunshower (born Ambersunshower Nadine Miligros Villenuevo Smith)) is an American R&B singer and former member of the hip hop duo, Groove Garden. Career Ambersunshower has been writing poetry since the age of ten. She was one half of h ...

. "I turned up at the studio and nothing was written," Morissette recalled. "We just worked on it there. He's a very funny man."

Critical reception

''Blowback'' received generally positive reviews from critics, although many of Tricky's longtime fans disliked it. According to ''

Encyclopedia of Popular Music ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' is an encyclopedia created in 1989 by Colin Larkin. It is the "modern man's" equivalent of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music'', which Larkin describes in less than flattering terms.''The Times'', ''The Kno ...

'' writer

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". Along wit ...

, it was hailed as Tricky's best record since his 1995 debut ''

Maxinquaye ''Maxinquaye'' is the debut album by English rapper and producer Tricky, released on 20 February 1995 by 4th & B'way Records, a subsidiary of Island Records. In the years leading up to the album, Tricky had grown frustrated with his limited rol ...

'', while ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

'' critic Jeffrey Thiessen later called it "a great pop album nobody liked". Simon Price regarded ''Blowback'' as Tricky's best album since 1996's ''

Pre-Millennium Tension ''Pre-Millennium Tension'' is the second album from English rapper and producer Tricky, released in 1996. It was a conscious effort by Tricky to depart away from the trip hop label with which critics had described his previous music. The album ...

'' and "his most accessible since ''Maxinquaye''." He wrote in his review for ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' at the time that the artist's move to New York "away from the petty politics of the music business" had resulted in "a dark, dense album of future-funk and deep dub". In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

Neil Strauss Neil Darrow Strauss, also known by the pen names Style and Chris Powles, is an American author, journalist and ghostwriter. He is best known for his book '' The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists'', in which he describes his ...

called it a radical departure from previous Tricky records, "direct and upfront, the poppiest production Tricky has ever mustered". '' The Indianapolis Star'' described it as Tricky's attempt to "prove there's at least one more rap-rock album that's worth a listen". Writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', Dave Simpson was surprised by how "deliriously uplifting, even humorous", the music was, while encompassing "everything from

rap-metal Rap metal is a subgenre of rap rock and alternative metal music which combines hip hop with heavy metal. It usually consists of heavy metal guitar riffs, funk metal elements, rapped vocals and sometimes turntables. History Origins and earl ...

(of which there's lots...) to

ragga Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music. Similar to hip hop, sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music. Wayne Sm ...

, US

power-pop Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and ch ...

, granite beats, supernatural ambience and even

New Romantic The New Romantic movement was an underground subculture movement that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The movement emerged from the nightclub scene in London and Birmingham at venues such as Billy's and The Blitz. The New ...

. At the same time, it is uniquely, inimitably Tricky." Some reviewers were more critical. '' The Wire'' said while "some of it is just odd enough to work", the album's fusion of hip hop, electro, dancehall, and, "most problematically, stadium alt.rock" proved to be an intriguing but frustrating listen. ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' magazine's Sarah Dempster was disappointed in Tricky's choice of guest artists, who she felt came off as "market-friendly gimmicks, novelties that will afford his selective ramblings a wider audience". While viewing it as further evidence of Tricky's evolution from trip hop toward becoming "some sort of rap-pop revolutionary", '' Pitchfork''s Brent DiCrescenzo found much of the music "horrible" and plagued by the musician's poor lapses in creative judgment, particularly his duets with

and

Ed Kowalczyk Edward Joel Kowalczyk (; born July 16, 1971)"Edward Kowalczyk IMDb entry"
''

. ''Blowback'' was named the fourth best album of 2001 by ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...

'' critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

. In retrospect, he viewed it as Tricky's most "songful" release, one that was "criminally neglected" by listeners. Bill Friskics-Warren later said ''Blowback'' was "an album of funk-rock by way of dancehall reggae" that relied on mainstream-rock guest performers but did not "forego incisiveness for accessibility, resistance for appeasement".

Track listing

# "Excess" – 4:43 (with

) # "Evolution Revolution Love" – 4:09 # "Over Me" – 2:57 # "Girls" – 4:21 # "You Don't Wanna" – 5:25 # "#1 Da Woman" – 2:40 # "Your Name" – 3:35 # "Diss Never (Dig Up We History)" – 2:50 # "Bury the Evidence" – 4:51 # "

Something in the Way "Something in the Way" is a song by American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It is the 12th song on their second album, ''Nevermind'', released in September 1991. It is the final listed song on the album, althou ...

" – 3:24 (

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

cover) # "Five Days" – 4:19 (With Cyndi Lauper) # "Give It to 'Em" – 3:04 # "A Song for Yukiko" – 4:10

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Sales

As of September 2003 it has sold 95,000 copies in United States according to

Nielsen SoundScan Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...

References

External links

*
Reviews
at moon-palace.de {{Authority control 2001 albums Tricky (musician) albums Anti- (record label) albums Hollywood Records albums