Five years after the mildly underwhelming Waiting For The Moon, Tindersticks is half the band it once was,
having shed three members. It's hard to hear the difference in scale—per
the last 15 years, strings and brass remain constant. But the intensity has
been diluted: "Mother Dear" is little more than an organ hum, Walkmen-like
drums, and the most jagged guitar solo that the typically unruffled band has
ever indulged in. The instrumentals— once grim, grinding
affairs—are now acoustic palate-cleaners like "The Organist Entertains,"
a late-night carnival dance over ethereal string runs. Stuart Staples' vocals
remain deep and his lyrics morose, but they're counterbalanced rather than
cocooned by the backgrounds. "All The Love" is typically downbeat—five
minutes of meditating on divorcées for whom "all the love inside them twisted
in hate"— but it's balanced out with a wordless cooing female straight
from a Ennio Morricone score. Tindersticks remains a champion at feel-bad soul
strings, but those who've found the group's previous work oppressive might want
to try again: Staples' vocals haven't changed, but with the music as pared-down
as one of their impressionistic soundtracks, it's a new sound.