First gaining attention as the female vocalist on Tricky’s first four albums, Martina Topley-Bird has one of the most distinctive voices in trip-hop, an admittedly small group of artists. In a rare move in the music world, she cited creative differences with her collaborator and moved on to a solo career in the late ’90s. After a couple albums of her own and a guest spot on what may be
the best song on Gorillaz’ incredible
Demon Days, Ms. Topley-Bird wisely collaborated with the group’s appropriately ubiquitous producer, Danger Mouse, who, excepting those albums produced by Rick Rubin and Alan Moulder, may as well go ahead and produce everything from now on (like
Beck! Hooray!). The resulting album,
The Blue God, was released just yesterday, and from the sound of tracks like Razor Tongue, it’s hot.