Tindersticks - Distractions

 

Prepare yourself for the best part of an hour of ennui and self-pity. Tindersticks, Nottingham's finest bedsit miserabilists are back, with more tales of mental anguish and woe, almost a quarter of a century  from where they set off. Latest album Distractions kicks in with an eleven minute track and ends with a nine minute one and I confess, I can't say I put my headphones on with enormous relish.

But I have to say I was surprised. Said eleven minute opener, Man Alone (Can't Stop the Fadin'), is certainly not the tasteful Nick meets Nancy and Lee in a bar downtown at two in the morning routine that we've come to expect from this lot over the years. It appears to be a dance / trance tale of middle aged disintegration. About seven minutes in it starts to rain heavily and thunder rumbles. That old Riders on the Storm pathetic fallacy routine. Meanwhile Stuart Staples is the dancing queen, the drunken uncle embarassing everybody at his niece's wedding. Frankly it's fantastic. One of the best things I've heard all year and one of the best things they've ever done.So, where do they go from here? Down to the lake I fear.

Next track I Imagine You is more contemplative, more what you'd expect. Stuart does a bit of Jarvis spoken vocals. I assume Staples writes the lyrics and he always does a pretty good job. Down in the mouth musings on L Shaped Rooms and thwarted expectations. Of those who have had, to paraphrase from here, 'the stuffing knocked out of them.'

The natural and unmissable antecedent for all this of course is Scott Walker and his suite of quite majestic albums from the late Sixties. He is probably Tindersticks most immediate influence and has been since their early days. They've never achieved his grandeur and breadth for me although I'd direct you most immediately to their eponymous debut double from 1993. It was and still is a considerable achievement.

This is their one essential record and though they've put out plenty of good stuff since in many respects they've continued putting out the same record every couple of years. They have never really reinvented their wheel, and although they are sensitive and adept musicians, they never truly reflect what should surely be the true and real passage of life. As one of change and growth. Take Nick Cave's career curve as a comparison point.

But there is something worthy of note here. I've enjoyed listening to Distractions over the past couple of days. It's artfully crafted and Tindersticks seem a band particularly suited to the strange, abstracted state of Lockdown. The record flows sumptuously and there are a number of well judged and rendered covers, one of the things they've always been particularly skilled in. They are a band that are open to any amount of criticism, but never in respect to their taste.

The covers are at the heart of the album and succeed one another. Firstly, Neil Young's A Man Needs a Maid, then Dory Previn's Lady With a Braid  and most remarkably and surprisingly The Television Personalities You'll Have to Scream Louder which is transformed into a Francis Baconesque howl of rage into the current political void.

But the best is saved 'til last. Penultimate track Tue-Moi is a genuinely resonant French language elegy for the victims of the 2015 terrorist attack at the Bataclan Theatre in Paris, a venue Tindersticks played regularly. It's genuinely moving, and here for once Staples raises his game to that of his heroes.

Then to final track The Bough Bends which starts with birdsong and floral flute and blossoms into a river of regretful memory. Sparsely orchestrated,with Staples alternating between spoken and sung stream of consciousness. It's not a track that goes anywhere particularly but occupies a particular melancholic isolation and veers on occasion into late Ian Curtis territory. I'd say it works. Then it and Distractions are gone.

I wouldn't say this is a great album but I do think it's a good one and certainly worth a listen. In many ways it walks the line between grace and ridicule that Staples has stumbled along for his entire career. I've always slightly wondered whether he was drunk and he's certainly always seemed happy to give that impression.  He's generally been a performer for me that has stumbled between the blackest humour, the bleakest farce and the promise of grace and redemption. It hasn't always worked but it certainly does sometimes. On Distractions he generally hits the right notes and the band behind him provide, as they always have, an immaculately restituted backdrop. I'll come back here.