Martina Topley-Bird

Martina Topley-Bird is the female vocalist who was the focal point of Tricky's groundbreaking first three albums. Back then, the two switched traditional roles, with Topley-Bird playing the male to Tricky's female side. Five years after the duo's split, Topley-Bird released the essence of her very feminine being in a...

By Lily Moayeri

September 9, 2004

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Martina Topley-Bird is the female vocalist who was the focal point of Tricky's groundbreaking first three albums. Back then, the two switched traditional roles, with Topley-Bird playing the male to Tricky's female side. Five years after the duo's split, Topley-Bird released the essence of her very feminine being in a stunning album titled Quixotic in 2003. A year later, it has been rearranged, renamed and released in the States as Anything.

Spine-chilling, seductive and languid, Topley-Bird's caressing voice is as open and vulnerable as a wound yet as strong and solid as lead. Enlisting Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), producers David Holmes and David Arnold, and, surprisingly, Tricky (who appears on "Ragga" and "Ilya"), Anything embodies all that was enticing about Topley-Bird in the first place. But it moves far beyond that, bringing her reputation for innovation to bear on creative rock arrangements ("Need One"), beautiful torch songs ("Sandpaper Kisses") and futuristic blues sentiments ("Too Tough to Die") -- killing you over and over with her pure genius.

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