Yahoo! Music Review

Released on 13/10/08
Label: Domino

Cover versions are - ahem - tricky beasts at the best of times. Generally pointless, they seem to suggest, "Ooooh! Look at my influences! Aren't I being ironic/smart/completely unpredictable (delete as applicable)" when in actual fact they tend to reveal a limitation of ideas that add up to being little more than pulsing paroxysms of pointlessness. However, there are still acts out there who know what to do with a cover version: subvert it.

Nick Cave is a master of the art as indeed are The Flaming Lips and it's worth mentioning these two as both have twisted the output of Kylie Minogue. As with his reading of Public Enemy's "Black Steel", Tricky climbs right inside the Aussie pop rocket's utterly sexy "Slow" and crawls out with something darker, more ominous and all together more menacing as his vocal growls coalesce with grinding guitars and doom-laden drums. An oppressive rendition, to be sure, but such is its daring that it stands proudly on its own defiant and twisted terms.

    by Julian Marszalek