9. Tricky - Maxinquaye (1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25y3cMC9i94 1994 and 1995 saw trip-hop at the height of its popularity. The genre had begun in and around Bristol in the early 90s, but it hadn't been given a name until 1994, when Mixmag writer Andy Pemberton used the phrase to describe a DJ Shadow single. By that point, it was already one of the UK's most significant musical movements. Massive Attack had just released their second album, Protection, and in the following year Bjork would embrace the genre on Post. By the time the 1995 Mercury Prize shortlist was announced, it was inevitable that trip-hop would feature in some way. Eventual winner Portishead were a shoo-in, given how ubiquitous their debut Dummy had become. But the shortlist also included perhaps the greatest album ever dubbed trip-hop, Maxinquaye by Tricky. A Massive Attack collaborator, Adrian Thaws (nicknamed Tricky Kid, hence his stage name) struck out on his own in 1995, and with his then-lover Martina Topley-Bird in tow, created one of the genre's defining records. Though Dummy is a seminal album, it soon became a dinner party favourite, negating some of its staggering weirdness. Maxinquaye on the other hand never suffered that fate, and still retains much of its other-worldliness to this day. Topley-Bird's sublime vocals mix with Tricky's smoke-addled whispered voice in a way that on paper should never work, but on record is a sensation.