Trick continues to fade

Tricky does a better job admitting his fears through music than titling his newest Vulnerable -- the overstatement almost does him an injustice by reducing his depth to a cliché. His textured electronica is a mixture of beats and fittingly barely-strange samples, with old-time sounding blues harmonicas mixed piecemeal with the drum machines. But the haunting necessity of this 13-song disc comes in the vocals. Tricky fades a dark, slightly off-rhythm ghost of a backing voice underneath the yearning rasp of Liz Constantine. The duo reaches its uncertain peak repeatedly demanding answers, but not expecting them, from God (once in a cover of XTC's "Dear God") with an accusing need. Tricky and Constantine play off of each others' determined unknowingness as the only two voices in the nuked-out city of sound Tricky's created. They are walking down the empty Times Square, searching for something of substance and someone to hold onto, minus any dues-ex-machina ending. Aside from these honest, conceptual motifs, the backing music is fittingly representative. From mildly punk-based tunes to a Cure cover ("Love Cats") to lonely balladry, Tricky covers enough material without mimicking.