On classic '90s albums like Maxinquaye and Pre-Millenial Tension, Martina Topley-Bird was very much the beauty to Tricky's beast. Her warm buttermilk vocals brought grace to his bleak slow beats, relief from his otherworldly croak. But it was his name on the spine, after all, and she was lucky to get correctly credited in the liner notes (Maxinquaye famously listed her as "Martine"). With the one-time trip-hop auteur gradually, but steadily, slipping into irrelevance, even his continued production guidance wasn't enough of a draw to get her 2003 solo debut, Quixotic, a proper release in the U.S.
Her '08 follow-up, Blue God, enlists Dangermouse, the Gnarls Barkley mastermind and proven hit-maker, who knows a thing or two about featuring a stunning soul vocalist in a forward-thinking yet crowd-pleasing manner. For the most part, that means putting Topley-Bird's pretty melancholy far out in front and keeping his production flourishes tastefully behind. "Valentine"'s pocket string swells, sleep-walking guitars, and shuffling beat are all quite pleasing, but the song is mainly an affirmation that Topley-Bird is a conventionally fantastic singer. It seems her relaxed but assured tone shines brighter when removed from the proximity of pitch black.
