''Ununiform'' is the thirteenth studio album by English

trip hop Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop ...

artist Tricky. It was released by False Idols on 22 September 2017. Three singles were taken from this album, 'The Only Way', 'When We Die' and 'Running Wild', all of them released before the album. And alternative version of 'The Only Way' was uploaded on Tricky personal Soundcloud account a few weeks after the original, and later released as a single in 2018, this version was also included in the physical releases of the album, but unlisted in the back cover. The album features a variety of guest vocalists, including Russian rappers, American vocalists, his usual collaborator Francesca Belmonte, and Tricky's frequent-collaborator and former girlfriend

Martina Topley-Bird Martina Gillian Topley-Bird (''née'' Topley; born 7 May 1975) is an English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who first gained fame as the featured female vocalist on trip hop pioneer Tricky's debut album, ''Maxinquaye'' (1995). Sh ...

Recording

Tricky conceived the album while in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, Russia; it consequently features vocal contributions from Russian rapper Smoky Mo. The album was recorded in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Germany. The album features a mixture of trip hop-inspired tracks as well as guitar-based tracks, including a cover version of "

Doll Parts "Doll Parts" is a song by American alternative rock band Hole (band), Hole, written by vocalist and rhythm guitarist Courtney Love. The song was released as the band's sixth single and second from their second studio album, ''Live Through This'', ...

" by

Hole A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of en ...

, featuring vocals from

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

-based artist Avalon Lurks. American hip hop artist

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...

co-engineered the album.

Critical reception

''Ununiform'' received generally positive reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 71, based on 12 reviews. Kitty Empire of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, stating that "Tricky creates a claustrophobic world full of stark bass lines, pop digressions and slinky Bristol moments; his duet with Francesca Belmonte, ''New Stole'', is particularly moreish." Ben Cardew of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' gave the album 5.1 out of 10 stars, summarising: "''ununiform'' may come nowhere near to the jaw-dropping impact of those early Tricky albums. But buried deep in his 13th studio release, Tricky may just have sown the seeds of a new musical contentment." The album was compared to

Serge Gainsbourg Serge Gainsbourg (; born Lucien Ginsburg; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French musician, singer-songwriter, actor, author and filmmaker. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop, he was renowned for often provoca ...

's ''

Histoire de Melody Nelson ''Histoire de Melody Nelson'' is a 1971 concept album by French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. Produced by Jean-Claude Desmarty, the album was released on March 24, 1971 through Philips Records. Its narrative follows an illicit romance which devel ...

'' (1971) and

The xx The xx are an English indie rock band from Wandsworth, London, formed in 2005. The band consists of Romy Madley Croft (guitar, vocals), Oliver Sim (bass guitar, vocals), Jamie Smith, also known as Jamie xx (beats, MPC, record production), a ...

's ''

Coexist Coexist may refer to: * ''Coexist'' (album), a 2012 album by The xx * Coexist (song), 2019 song by Coldrain * Coexist Foundation, a charitable organization based in London, England * Coexist (image) The Coexist image (often styled as "CoeXisT ...

'' (2012).

Track listing

Note *1 "Doll" is a cover of "

" by

. *2 "Running Wild" was also co-written by Mina Rose. *3
"New Stole"
is a reworked version of Francesca Belmonte song ''Stole'' from her debut album ''Anima''.

Personnel

Musicians * Tricky – vocals, production *Scriptonite – vocals (tracks 2, 5, 6, 11) *Avalon Lurks – vocals, guitar (track 10) *Francesca Belmonte – vocals (track 3) *

Asia Argento Asia Argento (; born Aria Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento; 20 September 1975) is an Italian actress and filmmaker. The daughter of filmmaker Dario Argento, she has had roles in several of her father's features and achieved mainstream success with a ...

– vocals (track 4) *Mina Rose – vocals, guitar (tracks 7, 12) *Smoky Mo – vocals (track 11) *

– vocals (track 13) *Terra Lopez – vocals (track 9) *Wim Janssens – guitar, synthesizer *Leon Schurz – bass *Muyi Liu – keyboards, piano *Tom Schneider – synthesizer Technical *

– engineering *BeatsBySmo – engineering, production *Levan Avazashvilli – engineering, production *Vasiliy Mikhaylovich Vakulenko – production

Charts

Notes

References

External links

''ununiform''
at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

{{Authority control 2017 albums Experimental music albums by English artists Tricky (musician) albums