(FORTUNE Magazine) – Tricky Juxtapose (Island)

True to his name, Tricky is impossible to pin down. His music, a woozy hybrid of hip-hop, London electronica, soul, and reggae, covers up as much as it reveals. His voice tends to lurk way down in the mix, hemmed in by a clotted gridlock of beats and noise. He associates himself with rap (Juxtapose is a collaboration with hip-hop producer Grease and Cypress Hill's DJ Dame Muggs), but Tricky doesn't really rap, at least not in the blustery way Americans are used to. He whispers suggestively, in a hazy, demonic purr. You can imagine Mickey Rourke listening to Tricky in 9 1/2 Weeks: The tone is creepy, kinky, chic.

Compared with the sonic density of Tricky's landmark album, 1995's Maxinquaye, Juxtapose is a pretty lean affair. The first track, "For Real," has been peeled away to little more than a drum and an acoustic guitar riff; it almost sounds like a normal rock song. Even in this more skeletal form, however, Tricky's droning soundtrack for the Clinton era slips through your fingers as soon as you try to catch it. What is Juxtapose, exactly? Well, that depends on what your definition of "is" is.

--J.G.

JEFF GORDINIER is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly.