It seems odd that Tricky’s self-professed “gangster album” may go down as the polyglot producer’s most bland offering yet. Especially considering Mixed Race follows one of his best, 2008’s Knowle West Boy. But what that album had in abundance — loud guitars, noisy electronics, new ideas — this comparatively minimal one lacks. So whether he’s trying on New Orleans jazz (“Early Bird”), spare blues (“Every Day”), boy-girl vamps (“Come to Me”), or Bobby Gillespie’s husky vocals (“Really Real”), Tricky sounds vanilla, not the colorful beacon his titular heritage suggests.
