‘Anything’ goes

It’s rare for a backup singer to steal the show from the headliner, but Martina Topley-Bird came close a decade ago when she made her hoarse, Cockney-accented debut on Tricky’s trip-hop masterpiece “Maxinquaye.”

Honing the slow, psychedelic rap he’d pioneered with Bristol-based collectives the Wild Bunch and Massive Attack, Tricky had created a near-perfect record, with its wash of intoxicating, pan-African beats and gravelly vocals, but Topley-Bird took it over the top with a laid-back sensuality and a smoky rap-speak that proved unforgettable.

A decade later, the 28-year-old Londoner is releasing “Anything,” a retitled, resequenced and redesigned version of her 2003 debut album, “Quixotic.” With “Anything,” due in stores Aug. 10, Topley-Bird proves she’s more than capable of carrying her own album.

Although there are trace elements of her trip-hop past throughout, it doesn’t fall into any easy category. From the hopeless romanticism of the title track to the anthem-like soul of “Need One” to the space-age reggae of “Ragga” and the doo-wop spiritual that brings the record to a close, “Anything” is so good it makes you wish she’d gone solo years ago.

In a way, she did. It just took her five years to pull together an album of her own.

“It takes as long as it takes,” said Topley-Bird, who struck out on her own in 1998 after recording three records with Tricky, the English musician-rapper-singer who defined the influential, atmospheric trip-hop style.

She left, she said, “for a bunch of reasons. I wasn’t really handling the touring very well. I needed to be home. My daughter was about to turn 3 and needed to be in one place. And it was the next thing. I really needed to do my own album at that point, to be more evolved.”

It seems unusual in such a youth-obsessed industry that Topley-Bid would feel at ease releasing her solo record so long after arriving on the scene. Maybe that’s because she was so young when she got involved with Tricky.

The year was 1991, and Topley-Bird was a 15-year-old student at a Bristol boarding school. Tricky, then in his early or late 20s (depending on which reference source you consult), was experiencing his first shot of fame with Massive Attack.

“The school I went to had a marshal that would bust people for smoking,” she said. “You’d get fined or sent home, so we had to hide. So me and this girl sat behind this big acacia tree hiding from view from the main road. Tricky walked past, and that’s how I met him.”

That chance meeting eventually became a schoolgirl crush and then romance. At one point, she recalled, “I must have said something about music, so the next time he said, ‘So you can sing, can you?’ ”

A few weeks later, the two were together in the studio recording “Aftermath,” the hypnotic R&B; track that became the first single from “Maxinquaye.”

Four years later, they had a child together. Maisie, now 9, lives in London with her mother. Tricky lives in L.A., but the two continue to collaborate.

“Anything” is hardly a Tricky record in Topley-Bird clothing, but his presence is evident -- both up front and behind the scenes. In a role-reversed trip down memory lane, he does a cameo, lending his trademark sandpaper vocals to two tracks. He also served as a sort of spin doctor after the songs were written.

Her former paramour is just one member of a star-studded cast on the record, including English electronica artist David Holmes, Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme and singer Mark Lanegan -- musicians she assembled after getting her solo record deal.

Topley-Bird said she’d been courted by various record labels since 1999, but she didn’t sign on the dotted line until 2001, when she joined with London-based Independiente. Distributed by Sony, “Quixotic” was released in England in September 2003.

Rave reviews came quickly. NME called the record “astonishing.” Maxim magazine deemed it “a classic.” The acclaim culminated in a nomination for last year’s Mercury Music Prize.

The American version of the record will be released through Palm Pictures, the label headed by Chris Blackwell, who founded Island Records and who signed Tricky in the early ‘90s.

A fan of Topley-Bird since her “Tricky days,” Blackwell says he signed her because “I loved her voice.”

Having helped shape the careers of Bob Marley, Cat Stevens and U2, Blackwell has always had an ear for talent. Although he thought “Quixotic” was “really good,” he wanted to change the record a bit for its U.S. release.

He switched the title to “Anything,” the song he sees as the standout track. He replaced the geometric and feminine look of “Quixotic’s” cover art with a sexually assertive, come-hither photo he thought would have more American appeal, and he resequenced and shortened the record.

The result is an album with a beginning, a middle and an end -- one that covers a vast terrain of styles but does so with a natural flow and circular pacing that inspires endless listening. If “Maxinquaye” hinted at what this artist had to offer, “Anything” is proof of what had been hidden underneath.

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On the Web

To hear some of Martina Topley-Bird’s album, visit www.calendarlive.com/topley.