TINDERSTICKS – FALLING DOWN A MOUNTAIN (4AD)
Opening with a sense of urgency that sounds akin to a ticking time bomb, the latest offering from the Tindersticks is a wider selection of sounds than their previous album “The Hungry Saw” and for it the band appears to have taken on a new kind of persona and objective. Whether this progression has worked its way into the actual songwriting remains open to debate but from the off it is evident that something is up, something has happened.
Emerging victorious from some kind of resurgence in recent years their influence feels wider than ever as the measured sound of Tindersticks offers a kind of indie decadence that feels somewhat more permissible in this age. Maybe this the result of an audience maturing or perhaps just the positive affect of an industry look back to a time more tangible and analogue.
There is immediately a Lalo Schifrin feeling to proceedings as via the title track a new kind of looseness prevails as an expansive loungey sound prevails. This dramatic and mysterious stuff, in a world where Stuart Staples appears to be harbouring a secret and a confession looks destined to follow albeit with something of a struggle. This is sex music. I have had a friend confide in me how he used to shag to the Tindersticks music and now it would seem that person (the receiver) is somewhat sexually damaged as result. Where there is blame, there is a claim.
The songs on show range from the exciting to the tender but as the album reaches the fourth song it draws a real clunker as “Peanuts” plays out teasingly in the most stupid of fashion. Yes the word “peanuts” is easily substituted for the word “penis”, it does not take a four and a half minute song to demonstrate and demonise this. So horribly cheese, much like Staples’ cock I would imagine.
Thankfully of the ten songs on display that the one real disappointment as the lyrics remain explicit but equally amusing in thankfully not so childish a manner. “Hubbard Hills” sounds like the closing credits music of Withnail & I while “Keep You Beautiful” is earnest in every way that is good and professional. The single “Black Smoke” offers the biggest hook in an acceptable manner.
Of all the tracks most resolution appears to be found in “No Place So Alone” which seems to go around the houses in desperate fashion before arriving at some kind of accomplished understanding and happy outcome.
From here the remainder of the album cascades into oblivion offering the atmosphere of a beautiful ending (“Piano Music” does exactly what it says on the tin). These are the closing credits.
Tindersticks are a great band without doubt; they just take up a bit too much time and patience on occasion.
How could something this good emerge out of Nottingham ? It’s a rotten rotten place.
Thesaurus moment: siren.
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