release date: Jan. 25, 2010
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: Stuart A. Staples
label: 4AD Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Falling Down a Mountain" - 2. "Keep You Beautiful" (4,5 / 5) - 3. "Harmony Around My Table" - 5. "She Rode Me Down" - 7. "Black Smoke" - 9. "Factory Girls"
8th studio album by Tindersticks close to two years after The Hungry Saw (Apr. 2008) is the band's first and only studio album on 4AD Records. The band is now officially back as a sextet after having been reduced to a trio for a short period from 2006 to 2008 with Stuart Staples, Neil Fraser, and David Boulter from the original line-up. Here the three are now joined by the three new members: guitarist David Kitt, bassist Dan McKinna, who also played with the trio on the band's 2008 album as additional studio musician, and American drummer Earl Harvin [officiel trailer].
The band now continues a stronger experimental style, and the album has a distinct influence from jazz, which is to be more pronounced on subsequent albums.
Falling Down a Mountain received a better reception than its predecessor, The Hungry Saw, but in 2010, although, back in 2010, I saw it as just another slightly boring and uninspiring album from a band I had previously been much more excited about. However, I also admit to having changed my attitude towards the album, which a few years later I came to see in a somewhat more positive light than my original verdict told me. Best track here is undoubtedly "Keep You Beautiful", although other tracks are worth knowing. A slightly original tone and a more laid-back jazz feel hovers on top of the entire album, which may be seen as a new and welcome move as opposed to the more compact arrangements with grandiose orchestral strings that you'll notice on the band's previous albums.
The album cover is an excerpt from a painting by Stuart Staples' wife, Suzanne Osborne.
[ allmusic.com, Mojo, Uncut 4 / 5, Spin, Drowned in Sound 3, 5 / 5 stars ]
