I share some similar feelings towards TRICK... As much as I some tracks on it are among my all time fav songs of hers, the whole thing just feels all over the place. I had already linked the TRICK theme to a performer persona vs her original self, mainly cause I went on reading about pierrots around the time, but didn't take it too deep other than the album shooting and the first couple of tracks. Thanks a lot for sharing these insights, Corvina!
One thing that always bugged me regarding that era is the first act of the tour. She comes out in the stage in a white outfit, and after the intro, TABOO starts. But despise it being such a powerful song to dance to, the choreo is really different and it has a theme of a dictatorship? Or controlling robots? The dancers are all faceless and dance rather "stiffy" and emotionless. There's also a video of her in the screen in a room that looks like a futuristic headquarters. Now I'm starting to see it more related to the lyrics of TABOO than the music itself... But still I can't connect that to the undressing scene before show girl
At the time it felt to me like a theme she had for the tour way earlier than the album became complete (that outfit was already shown at the end of the Kingdom Tour) and she changed the tour theme but kept that opening act
I'll give it another watch to see if I can fit that into her feelings from that time.