published: 21 /
5 /
2003
Label:
Beggars Banquet
Format: CD
Familiar, yet also occasionally surprising latest collection of "agonised beauty and heartache" from the Tindersticks, who continue on their sixth album to make a success out of failure
Review
More songs of agonised beauty and heartache. Dark, lush waltzes of late-night reflections of half-forgotten memories and wistful thoughts of what could have been. The Tindersticks have a very English attitude to failure. While American culture venerates the winner and those that have managed to crawl (usually by any means necessary) to the top of the pile, the English mentality is to support the loser, those that valiantly try but invariably fail at the last hurdle. Paradoxically, Stuart Staples and company capture that failure so successfully.
It may be now something of a cliché to describe the band in terms of being weary subterranean bohemians wearing crumpled suits that have seen better days whilst trudging home (to the predictable bedsit) in the early hours after yet another emotional break-up with their latest amour. It was either home or off to frequent some seedy open-all-hours hostelry to preserve the pain in cheap liquor. Instead of anger and rage, there is a sense of forlorn resigned inevitability. Like an Anton Chekhov play or one of Raymond Carver's short stories, the Tindersticks are frustrated at every turn.
From the off, their latest opus, 'Waiting for the Moon', plunges you into very dark emotions. Despite the lilting guitar, Staples delivers the line "My hands round your throat/If I kill you now will they ever know?" Coldly. Then proceeds to inject a fragile beauty to the rest of 'Until the Morning Comes'.
'4.48 Psychosis' - the song title and words coming from Sarah Kane's play of the same name - is a raw and emotionally black reply to the existential pain of living. It's also the nearest anyone has come to capturing the essence of the Velvet Underground's 'The Gift'. Kane's play set in a mental hospital documents suicidal depression from the inside. Suffering from depression Kane killed herself in 1999 before the play could be staged.
And the anguish continues on the weary 'Trying to Find a Home' and the delicate 'Sometimes It Hurts', a duet with Lhasa De Sala.
While the band are on well-worn familiar ground - and the previous studio album 'Can Our Love' largely stood still, treading water - 'Waiting for the Moon' also contains some surprises that add an extra richness. 'Just a Dog' sees Staples self-mockingly refer to himself as "just a dog learning stuff I don't understand... but at night I howl" while the band play a lighthearted jig that could be the theme tune to a modern-day version of the TV sitcom 'Steptoe and Son'. The finale of 'Running Wild' is crammed-full of rich, undulating strings and the gentle tinkle of soft piano keys.
The Tindersticks still have the power to seduce you.
Track Listing:-
1
Until The Morning Comes
2
Say Good Bye To The City
3
Sweet Memory
4
4:48 Psychosis
5
Waitig For The Moon
6
Trying To Find A Home
7
Sometimes It Hurts
8
My Oblivion
9
Just A Dog
10
Running Wild
Band Links:-
http://www.tindersticks.co.uk/splash/
https://www.facebook.com/tinderstickso
https://twitter.com/tindersticksuk
https://www.instagram.com/tindersticks
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwGYo