Tindersticks : classic or dud

Didn't enjoy the new album as a soundtrack to washing up this evening (though the kitchen stereo is a bit ropey and does make some music sound particularly rubbish).

Undecided whether the "twist" in Chocolate is nice, tender or forced though I do like some of the detail in the narrative.

chocolate is kind of dumb but the rest of the album is good. I don't hear this as that much of a drastic change from the last two albums (and I think 'waiting' was kind of the 'big comeback' after staples solo records). this album does remind me more of the first two albums than anything else they've done though.

frankly I don't hear that big a difference between the 'new' lineup and the 'old' band, certainly not on this album and I didn't when I saw them live with the clare denis films earlier this year.

well the big difference would obviously be the relative lack of strings (D Hinchcliffe's violin and also string quartets and so on, which he arranged) in the new line-up. they were totally pivotal to the old band's sound and one of the main reasons why I loved them so much. I don't think strings are entirely absent from the last three albums but if they are there, they are certainly used more as incidental colour than to carry the melody. the guitar is more to the forefront now and they sound a lot more like a conventional indie rock outfit than they used to, in my humble opinion of course.

Yeah I agree with you anagram. I get excited hearing there's a new Tindersticks out, but each one has been sort of a let down, too much rock band material. I also really like the other guys vocals, sometime more than staples.

simple pleasures is their best album y'all. i've said it before, i'll say it again.

and each subsequent album has been disappointment of some degree or another. the response to each of them seems to be the same on ILM: no, this one is really good, it's a return to form, not like those previous albums. i guess can our love... is the one album that seemed to garner the most consensus in terms of being a letdown.

i meant to say, the initial excitement (re. each of their albums of the last 10-12 years) seems to settle longer-term into a sense that it wasn't really all that great.

i'll give this one a go i guess.

i guess can our love... is the one album that seemed to garner the most consensus in terms of being a letdown

no I love that one!

My favorite Tindersticks album is still the first one which was always less string heavy than the others.

I love certain songs from Can Our Love, People Keep Coming Around and Dying Slowly both are great upbeat songs with devastatingly sad lyrics, one thing Tindersticks do well.

Dying slowly is funny.

Anyone bought the Singing Skies book of Staples' lyrics?

I so wish this was actually by *the* Stuart Staples:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Not-Normal-Behaviour-Stuart-Staples/dp/1843751364/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_5

Any way, new soundtrack and album coming up in the next month. The former is actually supposed to be out already but has been delayed.

it's on spotify

the soundtrack that is

The album's due on Friday. Re-recordings of back catalogue, done at Abbey Road. It's pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo7i_pHEWNg

"Across 6 Leap Years" streaming at the Quietus on Monday.

http://thequietus.com/articles/13529-tindersticks-across-six-leap-years-album-stream

Started from "She's Gone" ... immediate reaction was kind of recoiling at it not being the version I was used to.

Strangely obsessed by "Ballad of Tindersticks", at the moment.

Les Salauds is an intriguing one - would be easy to hear most of it without thinking "It's Tindersticks!"

Loving "Put Your Love In Me", still.

Having said that I found hearing new versions of classics odd (on "Six Leap Years"), my current sense is that they don't actually sound different enough ...

yes, that was my feeling too. i like them but most are very close to the originals but his voice is sometimes not as good.

Staples can redeem himself, on the current tour, by ditching the suit and dressing as Errol Brown for an encore of "Put Your Love In Me".

i was looking for the "like" button just there.

It didn't happen.

There's a download to the Barbican show at the Tindersticks' website (in the Forum).

Largely ambivalent about "Across Six Leap Years" but loving "What Are You Fighting For?"

"Ypres" isn't doing it for me, at all.

If I hadn't known it was Tindersticks and someone had told me it had been scored by Guy Garvey (or pretty much anyone else, for that matter), I'd have believed them.

Twenty years since the second album was released.

I wish I'd got round to organising a celebratory party (by which I mean getting a decent bottle of red and sitting in a chair by myself; with Twiglets too, maybe).

That 2nd record is still one of my all time favorite records. Fantastic from start to finish. Also one of the best designed LP jackets ever. Made me wanted to get properly tailored.

"Made me want to get properly tailored."

Yes, this completely. It wouldn't have been the same if they'd gone for trackies.

Any one bought the Singing Skies book? Is it a thing of beauty?

Yes, this completely. It wouldn't have been the same if they'd gone for trackies.

A 20th anniversary edition with them getting fitted for trackies on the sleeve would be great though.

Yes, they've earned the right to leisure wear.

Have enjoyed this, this evening:

http://concert.arte.tv/fr/tindersticks-la-philharmonie-de-paris

Perhaps it is old news.

Anyway, who knew you could get foot stands that are a bit like putting your foot on a monitor, eh?

Planning lots of live shows, apparently.

A clip of some new music is on their website.

We Are Dreamers! https://vimeo.com/139451615

immediately recognisable as tindersticks but somehow sounding new. excellent, whets my appetie for the new album. the swiftian video is great too.

Agree this sounds great, really like the droney menacing tone of it. Extensive European tour announced as well:

http://www.tindersticks.co.uk/tomorrows/concerts/

http://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2016/01/14/462671036/stuart-a-staples-on-tindersticks-the-waiting-room-track-by-track?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social

Picked up 'The Waiting Room' yesterday. It's really good. I liked 'The Something Rain' too, so pleased with a strong follow up. Not watched the DVD yet.

the Lhasa guest vocal makes me sad

It definitely sounds nicer on CD than via that link (possibly just that I'm listening to it differently).

Early thoughts: some good tracks, less "coherent" than their early albums, some tracks sound oddly recorded (particularly the vocals and not in a good way).

Current favourite track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdhJyu1wGXc