release date: Feb. 19, 2021
format: vinyl (LTD. blue vinyl) / digital (7 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,02]
producer: Stuart A. Staples
label: Lucky Dog / City Slang - nationality: England, UK
Tracklist: 1. "Man Alone (Can't Stop the Fadin')" - 2. "I Imagine You" - 3. "A Man Needs a Maid" - 4. "Lady With the Braid" - 5. "You'll Have to Scream Louder" - 6. "Tue-Moi" - 7. "The Bough Bends"
13th studio album by Tindersticks succeeding No Treasure but Hope (Nov. 2019) released on Stuart Staples' label Lucky Dog aided by independent German label City Slang. The band is still the quintet consisting of lead vocalist, primary songwriter and composer Stuart A. Staples, guitarist Neil Fraser, bassist and keyboardist Dan McKinna, keyboardist David Boulter, and drummer Earl Harvin. The album 'only' contains seven compositions with a total running length at just above 46 minutes, which means several tracks have a longer running time than the common 3 to 4 minutes, although on recent releases the band really has done things its own way. Somewhat unconventionally, the album starts off with the longest track by far, running more than 11 minutes, and the track is also unusual for Tindersticks as it has a clear electronic edge. After that the album continues in a more traditional way for the band with quite simple-structered chamber pop without much other than Staples' vocal on top of quiet guitar notes, an almost non-existent ambient keyboard and faintly audible strings - with no traditional rhythm instruments whatsoever. Another new move is the presence of cover songs. Of the album's seven tracks, three here are covers and even though the original versions are extremely diverse, Tindersticks have turned the songs into Tindersticks songs, which fit quite nicely together. "A Man Needs a Maid" is a well-known Neil Young song from his classy Harvest album from 1972, and it's here completely adapted to a Tindersticks universe with bright backing vocals and Staples' contrasting darker vocal - the result is very good. The following track, "Lady With the Braid", is probably a lesser-known song to most people written by [Dorothy] Dory Previn [aka Dory Langdon, aka Dory Previn Shannon] taken from her second singer / songwriter studio album Mythical Kings and Iguanas from 1971. That song is followed by the final cover: "You'll Have to Scream Louder" written by Dan Treacy for the British post-punk band Television Personalities taken from the 1984 album The Painted Word. After this, Distractions continues with an also almost typical Tinderstick's composition with French lyrics: "Tue-moi" ['Kill Me'], where Staples with his English-French [sorry] does his best 'chanson' style, which probably only Brits and also some flattered French will perceive as something extraordinary. The song is something quite special in another way, as it's Staples' inspiration from and his thoughts on the assassination at the French venue the Bataclan in 2015 - a venue Tindersticks has visited several times. The album ends a bit like it starts - with a slightly more experimental track with tape loops and 'other electronics', although it still mostly sounds like Tindersticks in the slightly jazzy corner. In a way, the album is like a reminiscent of Staples' most recent solo, the album Arrhythmia from 2018, which is the first time you notice Staples experimenting with electronic devices. That album was also unusual for its rather long compositions.
All in all, Distractions is an album that offers both new and old, and which is unmistakably Tindersticks, who have seriously turned down on the arrangements. The well-known chamber pop element is only faintly present, and instead something experimental appears borrowing both from modern styles and from jazz.
Tindersticks continue to make fascinating music - it seems they have found their own slot in the alt. rock sphere with enough space to keep experimenting without losing artistic progression. And I'm tempted to ask 'when did this band really make a poor album?' It's definitely been a long time, and it certainly hasn't been the case since the band suffered internal conflicts by the turn of the century.
Recommended.
The front cover is credited Sidonie Osborne Staples - daughter of Stuart Staples & Suzanne Osborne.
