Their ownly new album of any note since Tindersticks II.

Nope. That would imply that Curtains wasn't noteworthy. Which, a few dodgy rhymes aside, it was.

You're right Hayes. Curtains was an ommision on my part. It does contain some outstandlingly beautiful sticks' tracks.

If I forgot Curtains, perhaps it was because the last 15 years of Tindersticks production is saturated with the same Staples' syrup which infiltrates all of their albums to date except the latest release.

Staples himself realized the need to do something new when he took the decision to go solo with the album, Saying Goodbye to Old Friends.

But the Tindersticks were ressurrected.

Falling Down a Mountain is exactly how a Sticks fan might feel listening to the album. Staples smiling and having fun (peanuts); She Rode me Down (a Johnny Cash style track) etc.

But FDaM is not just a band in the process of rediscovering themselves and the playful, fun side of life. They've gone further than any Sticks' fan would imagine.

'Factory Girls' will delight all Sticks fans in its breathless beauty.

Stuart as usual gives his music and performances everything. A serious professional, as I saw at 'Les Docks' in Lausanne.

yeah, so much of it is about knowing where to draw the line... i remember simple pleasure being greeted by not much more than meh, but was it really bad? probably not - it just wasn't the first record. 

i saw the gig in lausanne in some listing and thought "ooh.. tindersticks!" which was promptly relegated to an "oh.. tindersticks again...". in that i was pretty much of the opinion that nowadays they should be touring with an entire string orchestra and playing only in stone amphitheaters, just to make attending worth my while. 

anyway prompted by this thread, i got falling down a mountain and gave it a once over.  

falling down a mountain. it's got rim-shots, it's got reverb, it's got feedback you don't notice. it's 4AD! no, ok, it's just back in time... that sparse trumpet is awesome. guitars are appropriately low down in the mix. the vocals are ... laboured? but this song is really really good. 

keep you beautiful. i don't like this song much. apart from a couple of unexpected slightly discordant shifts. like... sometimes it feels like he is reading comma, separated lists. it reminds me of bits of simple pleasures that bore me. but! there is a bridge that is reminiscent of the tindersticks at their best. *reminiscent* is the operative word here - the exit isn't as explosive as I wanted it to be. 

harmony around my table. tindersticks pop, but it makes me want to watch women in long red dresses. 

it sounds like they are still doing movie scores. nenette et boni or something. piano music, anyway. the sounds shifts in tempo are exciting, but it makes me want to be watching something at the same time. i'm not really sure what hubbard hills is supposed to be.

i agree that in parts the record is very good, but i can't really go so far as to call it a major return to form. for some reason it feels a bit like a retrospective of their entire career. there are bits from all over the place, but just that all the songs are new.

but i do kind of wish that i had gone to the lausanne show. were they just touring the new record or did they bring out some of the classics?  

there is no place as alone as somewhere you once belonged. that sounds about right, really. 

it's got rim-shots, it's got reverb, it's got feedback you don't notice. it's 4AD! no, ok, it's just back in time... 

Oh! No, It is actually on 4AD!  I'm Just That Good!

“Found a penny, picked it up / All the day I had some luck / But that was two weeks last Tuesday / Since then there’s been a sliding feeling.”

I too hesitated before going to the Lausanne gig. I had seen them on their tour promoting "The Hungry Saw" at l'usine in Geneva. Great performance but a mix of standard Tindersticks classics and a few new songs from the Hungry Saw album. I was going to give the Lausanne event a miss for the very reasons you mentioned.

I suspect that most Tindersticks addicts have long-ago overdosed (and are now dead) on the Staples' syrup. Had I not read a review in one of the local papers promising something different, I wouldn't have gone. Even on the evening of the performance, FNAC still had 150 seats to sell. At Les Docks, the crowd (mostly young) must have numbered 80 max.

So, it was a personal show, which the Tindersticks favour. They played new material only for 2.5 hours. Staples only once very briefly looked at and addressed the audience. Just before he left, he said, "thanks for coming, thank you" with only a hint of a smile, and he was gone. I bought the new album and noticed on exiting the docks that the touring bus was already gone. I am sure that this 'personal' performance is an exact replica of what he delivers in every location part of the current tour. Looking at YouTube, I notice that he is wearing the same clothes, same delivery etc. A group with attention to detail and delivery.

I agree with your analysis. Not a ground-breaking new style, but if they are not totally diverted into the movie industry, offers a hint of possibility that Staples' creative abilities are not dead.

David

(Photo attachment from Lausanne performance)

i was also at that show (l'usine, not lausanne, obv.). unfortunately i don't remember a thing about it. now i kind of wish i had gone to the lausanne one. but if there is one thing i hate more than not drinking, it's driving a car.  

i guess the general apathy towards them speaks for itself. after making a few excellent records, you're simply not allowed to make records that are just ok. i don't know if you would be horrified by this or not, but when the national released "boxer", i ... well, i dunno. it was like after that point i wasn't able to really take the modern tindersticks seriously any more. what made me lose interest was someone else coming along and doing what i though was what the tindersticks should be doing, but they simply weren't good enough any more. like they had got too bogged down in composition and _being the tindersticks_, and kind of forgotten about songwriting. i would post a national youtube video at this point and i even looked, but i simply can't tolerate the compression.