release date: Sep. 6, 1999
format: cd
[album rate: 4,5 / 5] [4,28]
producer: Stuart A. Staples
label: Island Records - nationality: England, UK
Tracklist: 1. "Can We Start Again?" (4 / 5) - 2. "If You're Looking for a Way Out" (4,5 / 5) - 3. "Pretty Words" - 4. "From the Inside" [instrumental] - 5. "If She's Torn" - 6. "Before You Close Your Eyes" - 7. "(You Take) This Heart of Mine" (5 / 5) - 8. "I Know That Loving" - 9. "CF GF" (4 / 5)
4th studio album by Tindersticks released on Island Records is their first album to be produced exclusively by lead vocalist and songwriter, Stuart A. Staples. All songs except track #7 co-written by Hinchliffe are credited Staples with all music credits shared by the trio of Staples, David Boulter, and Dickon Hinchliffe, with drummer Al(asdair) Macauley as co-composer on tracks #5 and #8 - except track #4 credited Tindersticks - and then track #2, which is a song by Sandy Linzer and Ralph Kotkov, originally a song for New York vocal-trio Odyssey taken from its 1980 album Hang Together.
Despite a lukewarm reception, the album is in my top-3 of Tindersticks albums. Well, the fact is the band never really was among the best-selling bands, and their biggest success in terms of albums sold, the second album went as high as to number #13 on the albums chart list in the UK, whereas the debut only reached number #56, and the third album peaked at position #37. This one peaked as number #36 on the list, and in that perspective, it's actually the second highest ranked Tindersticks' album, which both respond to the reception part as well as on the band's status, generally speaking. The album is perhaps their most significant pop soul-shaped album, imho. The previous release Curtains (1997) has the same chamber pop and special Tindersticks melancholic feel to it as this one, and although the debut Tindersticks (1993) is already a modern classic, it doesn't have the same accurate stylistic and tight message as Simple Pleasure. All of their albums contain great songs but I don't find any other Tindersticks release without fillers - this simply has none, which makes it so brilliant.
The front cover is a Polaroid taken by Staples of wife Suzanne Osborne when carrying their son Stanley.
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