TINDERSTICKS – TINDERSTICKS (THIS WAY UP)

TINDERSTICKS – TINDERSTICKS (THIS WAY UP)

The second album released by Tindersticks in 1995 conveniently shares the same name as their first: Tindersticks.  Self titled albums tend not to be for the adventurous but to do it twice is just downright lazy.  Tindersticks however have always had better things to occupy their mind/attention than such trivial detail.

I wouldn’t surprise me if this band were carrying a curse.  They originate from Nottingham for fucks sake.  That is not a place that produces happy.  From my experience it is all condensed crime and alcoholic adventures.

Tindersticks is a scorching act.  There is a stillness and devastation to their being.  In orchestration they are quite similar to the Bad Seeds but in execution they are more tender, more giving and more forgiving.  Their tracks tend to glisten rather than dismay.  This is music you can have sex to.  And certain friends of mine have confided to doing just that.

This sixteen song monster of an album was recorded in Cologne on the tip off from Blixa Bargeld when the band was on tour with Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds.  While not sounding explicitly German in influence or direction (save for the broken Krautrock of “Vertrauen II”), there is something expansive and cinematic in the way that it plays out as lush strings cradle and layer tethered emotions staggering through tough times.  On that note the strings were recorded at Abbey Road under the influence of Terry Edwards from Gallon Drunk and others.  There is limited wish fulfilment here.

Housed on this album is “Travelling Light” which is probably as close to a hit song the band has ever come.  Featuring Carla from The Walkabouts there is a slow build caress serviced by emotive strings and the kind of dropping hook smart suited men pay millions for.  As the two luxurious voices exchange remarks and passages the song comes to represent a frenetic relationship that is hyper in process if not progress.  Here is a love engaged if not supreme.  You want it to work out but common sense suggests it won’t.

A second heavyweight track exists in the form of “Tiny Tears” which with time has come to hold grand notoriety for appearing the Isabella episode of The Sopranos.  Someone at HBO likes Tindersticks.  And now due to the context it was used in it has come to represent very much an audible embodiment of depression caused by the end of an era and moment.

On a similar level “Seaweed” brings home a heavy dose of tired and emotional expenditure as this is then soon followed by the dramatic strings and requesting remorse of “Talk To Me”.  The sweeps suggested here should be enough to take anyone off their feet as he persuasion picks up powerful passion the further it runs through until hitting a majestic termination in an almost Bernard Herrmann Psycho string fashion.

This is very much a record written in past tense.  Pensive, pulsing and noir the dense composition of tracks and heavy instrumentation bring home the emotional impact of the moment.  By the end of lead track “El Diablo En El Ojo” the listener is drowning in string while second track “A Night In” thrives on a busy baseline adding an element of tense suspicion while Staples empathises “I know you’re hurting but I can’t be there no more”.

With “My Sister” the album takes a new direction with a lengthy spoken narrative akin to Arab Strap or Dexys Midnight Runners.  By this stage it has been established that man of these songs are to be brutal in length as the listener is offered a velvety lush lounge experience via fond recollection.  This is a method later engaged during the confused outset/aftermath description of “Cherry Blossoms”.

And you know you are listening to a special record when you are struggling to work out whether you are hearing a saw or a Theremin at play such as on “Vertrauen III”.

The one bum note occurs on “No More Affairs” which sounds suspiciously like “Perfect Day” by Lou Reed.  This is a record better than that.

Eventually the final big track arrives in the form of “She’s Gone” which arrives as another nostalgic moment of remorse detailing broken dreams.  Then follows appropriately a track entitled “Mistakes” before it all ends with “Sleepy Song” and passing out.

In many ways I remain clinging to the admission from my friend that he fucks his girlfriend to this music.  It speaks volumes about both the power of the music and his personality, his emotional state.  How does the star of this/that show view themselves?  Pray tell.

This is a positively morose record for strong moments.  It will age and mature you.

Thesaurus moment: fledged.

Tindersticks

Tindersticks live

This Way Up