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

trip hop Trip hop is a musical genre that has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop and electronica with slow tempos and an atmospheric sound. The style emerged as a more experimental music, experimental var ...

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 (musician), Tricky's debut album, ''Maxi ...

Recording

Tricky conceived the album while in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

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

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, 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, 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'', in November ...

" by

Hole A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid Body (physics), 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 m ...

, featuring vocals from

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

-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 Rapping, rapper, businessman, and record executive. Rooted in East Coast hip-hop, he was named Billboard and Vibe's 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time, the ...

co-engineered the album.

Critical reception

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

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

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

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

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

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' 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 or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' 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 singer-songwriter, actor, composer, and director. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop, he was renowned for often provocative rel ...

's ''

Histoire de Melody Nelson ''Histoire de Melody Nelson'' (; "Story of Melody Nelson") is a 1971 concept album by French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, arranged and co-written by Jean-Claude Vannier. Produced by Jean-Claude Desmarty, the album was released on March ...

'' (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), ...

's ''

Coexist Coexistence is the property of things existing at the same time and in a proximity close enough to affect each other, without causing harm to one another. The term is often used with respect to people of different persuasions existing together, ...

'' (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 ...

– 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 database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

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