Released on 24/05/2004
Label: Virgin

A Dallas 'T.L.C.' Austin creation to follow-up the sexy sass-attack of "Milkshake", "Trick Me" pales simply by not being another peerless Neptunes production.

A forgettable, reggae-type track, "Trick Me" is flimsy and unfulfilling, like yet another lazy holiday anthem set to clog up the charts come summer. There are some lyrical nuggets, nonetheless. The couplet "Freedom to us has always been a trick/Freedom to you has always been who ever landed on your dick" recalls Kelis' furious debut "Caught Out There", while "Call the police/There's a mad girl in town" is a neat, sex-changed reference to the Pet Shops Boys' "West End Girls".

Otherwise, Kelis sounds bored, the backing chugs along like a demo on a cheap keyboard and it's got one of those "Wo-oh wo-oh" samples that were supposedly run out of town in the late 1990s. Taste-less.

    by Emma Morgan