Tindersticks - The Something Rain

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release
Soundclips

4...according to our Clinton on Fri 17 Feb, 2012.

Aah The Tindersticks. I'm not even a fan but this already sounds like the best thing I've heard all day. But there again all I've heard all day is horrible noise records. The opener here is a stunner. Its great to hear that guys that have been around this long can still produce beautiful music on a regular basis. No hype, no fanfare, they just do their thing and get on with it. The opener 'Chocolate' is a gorgeous semi instrumental somewhere between Arab Strap, Dakota Suite and Sophia which builds beautifully with spoken word vocals which are overtaken by..........you're not going to believe this.......I almost dare not tell you....oh ok then - a honking sax. It doesn't completely ruin it. I'm a little more disturbed once the spoken word vocals become more clear they give the track even more of an Arab Strap vibe (if a posh middle class one - Pimms rather than Whiskey on the breath). Elsewhere Tindersticks are delightfully in no rush. The tracks unfurl themselves like a cat waking up in the morning, stretching in the sun and.....yawn.....finally getting going. 'Show Me Everything' is not far away from prime 'Nixon' era Lambchop with soulful vocals and Stuart Staples distinctive croon. 'The Fire of Autumn' is nicely upbeat whilst 'A Night so Still' is a little on the sluggish side and as the album wears on there's the odd track that passes by without leaving too much of an impression. 'Medicine', however is just gorgeous with a slinky late night melody creeping along. I like Tindersticks better when they take chances and expand their sound into other areas. This album seems to be a mixture of some songs utilising their signature sound and others sticking their neck out over the parapet into something new. Plenty for fans old and new.... and at times a revelation.

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* Much to everyone's delight, previous album 'Falling Down A Mountain' was a huge critical success:
- "Tindersticks remain at the top of their game and, better still, they seem to want to play." Record Collector (4/5)
- "Stunning....exquisite....gorgeous." MOJO (4/5)
- "Falling Down A Mountain is a subtly strong album, full of self-belief and always climbing, carrying you with it." Uncut (4/5)
- "A band on top form." The Sunday Times (4/5)
- "Rare evidence that reformed bands can make records that matter." The Word
- "Another truly great Tindersticks record to add to your collection." Clash (8/10)
- "The well never seems to run dry." Rock Sound (8/10)
- "Like a vintage Bordeaux, it slips down a treat." NME
"Quite an achievement... a feast: dense and opaque, but never sluggish or lacklustre." Mail On Sunday (5/5)

* "Making albums is a tricky thing; writing, arranging, playing, recording, mixing, all so important to get right. Then there is that other element which permeates everything; desire. If you have this, you can fuck up any or all of the above and still succeed in making something beautiful. We have experienced this many times.
What happens when you get all of those other elements right too? Something we have only felt once before. "

* The Something Rain is tindersticks ninth studio album and like its predecessors The Hungry Saw and Falling Down A Mountain it projects a bold spirit, something charged with what Uncut described as a "restored self-belief, again loving doing what they do and doing it better than anyone else”. Though within The Something Rain there is something else; the band, the ideas are formed - it touches what it is reaching for.

* Tindersticks recent history is a story of gradually rebuilding following a period, around 2003, of breaking it all down. It was a painful time, but it is only now that they feel those hard decisions were the right ones . Their music has grown into a different shape that could never have been found by holding on to the past. Since reforming they have been ever progressive, never looking back. This was felt most accutely on their recent soundtrack work for Claire Denis and the accompanying ambitious cinematic live shows, and culminating in the making of The Something Rain.

* They have gradually grown into a tight five piece band, utilising the riches of a great extended family of musicians.
There are the usual collaborators here - Terry Edwards (saxophone) and Andy Nice (cello, soprano sax) – and on The Something Rain they are also joined by: Thomas Bloch (crystal bachet), Gina Foster (vocals) Julian Siegel (bass clarinet, tenor saxophone) and Will Wilde (chromatic harmonica).

* Through this period of change, tindersticks enjoyed the support of Beggars Banquet/4AD. In their recent parting with the label, they left behind what had become a comfortable space for making music. In its place within the studio there was, in Staples’ words,"a new creative edginess around, and a determination."

* The Something Rain was recorded in bursts over approximately a year, from May 2010 to August 2011 and mixed in September-October 2011. It was a time of experimentation, of searching and honing down a shape and sound. Of the twenty or so ideas they set out with, nine songs became the final album:

TRACKLISTING:

1. Chocolate 2. Show Me Everything 3. This Fire Of Autumn 4. A Night So Still 5. Slippin' Shoes 6. Medicine 7. Frozen 8. Come Inside 9. Goodbye Joe

"At the albums heart lies the memory of the people we have lost in these last two years, but we were in no mood to be maudlin. It's to them. But it's for us. We are still drinking, laughing, crying, fighting, fucking, making our music. They wouldn’t have wanted it any other way."

Tindersticks are:

David Boulter (storytelling, keys, gloks, bells, percussion)
Neil Fraser (electric guitar)
Earl Harvin (drums, percussion)
Dan McKinna (bass guitar, keys, singing) /
Stuart A. Staples (singing, guitar, recording, mixing)

frank said:

awesome

So, what do you think? Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!