Tindersticks are for lovers
WHY O WHY would Tindersticks begin this fine, FINE elpee with a nine-minute hypnotic exercise named “Chocolate” that excludes (?!?) the sterling, mournful baritone of chief Tinderstick Stuart Ashton Staples?
Really, why? Staples is THE SHOW, but The Something Rain begins with Tindersticks super-multi-instrumentalist David Boulter telling a hushed-toned story about, well, something. Boulter speaks so softly, it’s hard to tell and it’s difficult to care.
“Show Me Everything” is more like it, and the bonus is, it’s quite unlike anything I’ve heard in twenty years of soundtracking my own personal romantic anguish to their music. Tindersticks have ever-so-slowly developed into a (dark) soul band, and this spare, sleek track is as soulful as anything I can recall them doing. It starts off as a slow burn of light percussion, understated keys and guitars, and some just-enough backing vocals from Gina Foster, but Staples, Foster and the band build it up gradually to stormy proportions. “Show Me Everything” is gritty yet elegant, like Roxy Music without the glitter. Best track on the record.
The plush sound of “Come Inside,” with its twinkling xylophone sweetness, softly rolling string arrangement and a sax solo that says “Baby, take it all off…” is a winner, as is the nervous, nocturnal “Frozen,” which is Tindersticks at their most Roxy.
Leonard Cohen just put out an elpee a few weeks ago. I love a guy who can articulate the passion he still feels in his heart as he approaches his eight decade on earth, but there was something missing from that record, (missing from the past several Cohen studio recordings, really) something I really couldn’t put my finger on until now. He needs a band that smolders like Tindersticks, and a back up singer like Gina Foster.
How’s that for a future collaboration?
