Pre-Millennium Tension picks up where the first album, Maxinquaye, left off, but this CD fulfils the promise of Tricky's unbounded spontaneity and fondness for sonic digression. Abandoning the accessible pop of Maxinquaye, Pre-Millennium Tension serves up a beguiling array of sound effects, electro distortion and fragmented lyrics that amount to a rich--if bizarre-musical montage. As suggested by its title, this disc zeros in on a kind of end-of-the-millennium disruption of classifiable sound. With its cross-pollination of hip-hop, cabaret balladry, background textures, and disjointed arrangements, Pre-Millennium Tension takes a peek at the future of pop music and declares it will be nothing like we expect. --Nick Heil