The Hit Factory

Do we really need another Tindersticks album?

Twenty years ago, the band's first two albums – confusingly, both eponymous – were big, bold grab bags, full of ideas and tunes jostling for attention. The production values improved on the second (“II”, we'll call it), with what sounds like a full orchestra present on most tracks. The third, “Curtains” was shorter and more focused with the formula from “II” honed to a sharp point that should have brought them commercial success along with the critical plaudits.

It didn't. The follow-up “Simple Pleasure” and its companion piece “Can Our Love…?” adopted a back-to-basics approach, employing a band setup playing live in the studio. These albums, nine and eight tracks respectively, barely made the forty minute mark and included the odd cover version. There was a sense that the band was in retreat, their creative energy expended and the commitment to their distinctive dramatic, cinematic sound gone.

But it was with “Waiting for the Moon” that the quality control really slipped. Good tunes were fewer and further between and lyrically there were no new ideas, with themes from previous releases being rehashed. Key members left. Vocalist Stuart Staples moved to France and released a solo record. A “Best Of” collection came out. By 2005, Tindersticks was over.

Then, in 2008, “The Hungry Saw” appeared, made by Stuart and a few friends at his “Lucky Dog” studio in France. And it wasn't half bad, but was it a Tindersticks album? Despite the presence of a couple of the old ‘sticks players, what we had was essentially a Stuart Staples solo record in terms of its musical and lyrical vision.

But, when you have a fan-base to exploit, why not do so?

“Falling Down a Mountain” followed in 2010, with much the same setup. Now, in 2012 we have “The Something Rain”. There appears to be a pattern emerging…

Okay, so much for the background and the baggage, what about the record itself?

Well its business as usual, really. The opener, “Chocolate” is a spoken word piece, detailing a romantic encounter with a not-all-that-surprising twist at the end – it would like to be “My Sister” or “Ballard of Tindersticks” but just isn't. Elsewhere, the usual kitchen sink dramas unfold against a tasteful backdrop of guitar, piano, sax and organ with discrete strings and brass on some cuts. Nine tracks, fifty minutes and see you again in 2014.

There are a couple of standout tracks which are, for some reason, hidden away in the second half of the album. “Slippin' Shoes” and “Medicine” provide a welcome one-two, just when you're about to give the whole thing up as a dead loss. The final track is a pretty but inconsequential instrumental number. Elsewhere, weak melodies are hidden under layers of instrumentation (“A Night So Still”) or enhanced with perky backing vocals (“Show Me Everything”).

Having said all that, the trend here is a downward one. When “The Hungry Saw” was released, it represented a welcome return and there was a sense that the record operated as a whole, and may in fact have been intended as a concept album. There were even some good tunes. With its lack of hooks and lyrical invention there is a general sense that “The Something Rain” is a placeholder, a product of people turning the handles and cranking out another unit from the production line.

So, to answer the initial question: No, in 2012, we don’t need another Tindersticks album. Or, more accurately, we don't need this Tindersticks album.