Angels with Dirty Faces (Tricky album)

Music and lyrics

"Broken Homes" features English singer-songwriter PJ Harvey. "Carriage for Two" features the guitar playing of Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian. Various tracks features the guitars of Marc Ribot. "The Moment I Feared" is a cover of the Slick Rick track of the same name.

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for Entertainment Weekly, David Browne viewed Angels with Dirty Faces as Tricky's best album since his 1995 debut Maxinquaye. He described it as an "alluring sonic blur" that preserved his previous music's mesmeric sounds yet felt "more adventurous, rhythmically and musically, than its predecessors". Simon Price hailed it as Tricky's most cogent work since his debut album: "Simultaneously challenging and gorgeously formed, it's a brilliant mix of defiance and achievement." Village Voice critic Robert Christgau said it was a rock album with a live band on every song, no samples, and "grimy" productions that complemented Tricky's anti-social themes, making for a difficult but interesting listen:

"I don't like this century," Tricky mutters in the course of "Record Companies," and that sums up his worldview as eloquently as words ever will. It's the sounds that signify, and postindustrially premillennial though Tricky's may be, they're also original, strong, and to the point. He distinguishes himself from the run of noise sculptors just by remaining conducive to recognizable life. He's a hater not a fighter, and the devil is in his details. So give that man a set of horns--he's earned them.

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine was less enthusiastic about the record. He wrote that while Tricky had expanded his signature dub-inspired trip hop sound with rhythmic elements from hardcore hip hop and jungle music, Angels with Dirty Faces was "slightly different but essentially the same" as his previous album Pre-Millennium Tension.

Personnel