Tricky – Pre-Millennium Tension

Could not resist updating here as RSD is coming up again for 2025... read my earlier rant down near the bottom of these reviews, and what do we have two years later? A whole bunch of sealed copies available worldwide...

I own this since day one, it's a great album, the second difficult one came out a success, the sound is closed-in, dark 'n' murky, as it should, side 1 is rather long, but it's ok, "Maxinquaye"'s is even worse, spanning 29:30, so the record should be NM to play properly... I love the sweetness of "Makes me wanna die", the mucho character of "Tricky kid" and the requiem mood of the closing track "Piano"....

Favorite album. I have a nm og pressing to compare this to, here are my thoughts: Mastering is very similar, this album has a lot of music for 1 lp and they make it sound pretty good. Its always been murky, its part of the aesthetic. My og is nm but this pressing is better, pressed at Pallas, best plant in the game imho. However, this cover looks awful compared to the original, totally washed out, completely missing the pink glow, the body on the cover should be purple by the way the pink and blue lights mix. it’s actually shockingly lackluster when compared side by side. The original has silver ink for the text, also not here. Original cover is much thicker. Printed inners are similar but same color issues as the cover.

I'm puzzled by so many comments here praising the sound quality on this release.
On my system it lacks dynamics, punch and bass definition. Sounds clean, but somewhat flat and muffled.

I've never had the chance to hear the original pressing of Pre-Millenium Tension, but I own one of the early pressings of Maxinquay and it blows this RSD edition out of the water.

Amazing sounding reissue. Dead quiet, dynamic and deep. Pursue this record at all costs.

Classic ..... forgotten how good this was ... my copy has ever so slight warp ....

Finally got the damn thing here in the USA. 50 bucks total with shipping and tax. Looks beautiful sounds wonderful... Feel free to scroll down and read my earlier rant... Normally could care less about most of these RSD things but this is one of my favorite things of all time and well now I've got it... On pink vinyl. Get out the chartreuse and the mezcal we're mixing up some Naked and Famous to 🥂

Totally worth getting. Truly sounds amazing - better than it ever has.

A few tiny pops toward the end of side B but nothing too bad.

Don't hesitate to get a copy.

Please correct writer credits. Current writer only contains sampled credits

I had to order this from Denmark on RSD since I knew this would not appear stateside where I live. I'm a huge Tricky fan and have wanted this on vinyl for quite a while now. I've given it a few listens now and can say that the sound is absolutely WONDERFUL with this pressing! The bass is so thick and chewy, it's such a warm and rich sound. I've been listening to this album on CD since it was initially released in the 90s, and then digital.. but this album truly deserves to be listened to on vinyl. Also, while I'm not a big fan of pink anything, vinyl or otherwise, but wow this one looks stunning!

My only complaint would be the simple, standard jacket (not a nice/thick gatefold). As a huge fan of early Tricky I would've loved something a little more substantial and comprehensive in the packaging department, but that's really just nitpicking on my part. The important thing is the sound itself and the record sounds absolutely great. Zero warp, zero pops, low noise floor; they really did this one justice!

To those in the US, it seems Canada managed to snag a few copies for RSD though, surprisingly, you can still see there are cheaper options (when factoring in record + shipping to the US) from Europe & UK than from our northern neighbor.

If you are a Tricky fan, holding off for a repress may result in a letdown. I think it's smarter to order one of these now (before the price starts to get stupid) than to convince yourself a repress is inevitable only to regret not buying when you could. Though this is some of my favorite Tricky material ever, it is not nearly as iconic or highly revered as Maxinquaye, so it's possible a repress of PMT will be a ways off - especially seeing there are still plenty of copies of this one for sale so demand doesn't appear to be all that high to begin with.