Tindersticks: The Hungry Saw

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.