Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic70/100
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic
Blender
Entertainment WeeklyB
Drowned in Sound6/10
The Guardian
NME7/10
Pitchfork5.8/10
PopMatters7/10
Rolling Stone
Uncut

Knowle West Boy is the seventh studio album by musician and producer Tricky, released by Domino Records on 7 July 2008 in Europe, and 9 September 2008 in North America.

A remixed version of the album called Tricky Meets South Rakkas Crew was released in 2009 and was mixed by Florida-based producers South Rakkas Crew.

Details

The first single, "Council Estate", samples "Roads" by Portishead from the 1994 album Dummy. It was the first single that Tricky had ever done with just himself on vocals. He commented: "I couldn't whisper that song. I had to come out of myself and do a loud, screaming vocal. I wanted to be a proper frontman on that one."

"Cross to Bear" features guest vocals from Hafdís Huld.

"Veronika" is a cover of the song "Livido Amniotico" by Subsonica (featuring Veronika Coassolo), which was first published as one of three previously unreleased studio tracks in their 2003 live album Controllo del livello di rombo.

Track listing

All music is composed by Tricky and Bernard Butler except where noted.

Knowle West Boy track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Puppy Toy" (featuring Alex Mills)3:34
2."Bacative"3:51
3."Joseph" (featuring Joseph Franklin Hunt)2:29
4."Veronika"TrickyVeronika Coassolo3:00
5."C'mon Baby"3:04
6."Council Estate"2:39
7."Past Mistake"5:07
8."Coalition"3:59
9."Cross to Bear"3:47
10."Slow"Kylie MinogueMr. DanEmilíana Torrini3:22
11."Baligaga"3:42
12."Far Away"TrickyVeronika Coassolo3:38
13."School Gates"3:47

Charts

Chart performance for Knowle West Boy
Chart (2008)Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)93
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)35
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)35
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)89
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)86
French Albums (SNEP)31
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)95
Italian Albums (FIMI)53
Portuguese Albums (AFP)48
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)25
UK Albums (OCC)63
US Billboard 200147