Tindersticks
Can Our Love…
Beggars Banquet
“•groove any further?,” The Tindersticks ask. Or, should I recast, can it commence? Yes, it can. Truth be sadly told, this is my first introduction to The Tindersticks. Yeah, I know: Being a big fan of Nick Cave, I’ve often heard The ‘Sticks’ name mentioned in the same breath as his, but never has an opportunity for the purchase of used albums previously presented itself, so maybe that should tell you something. Anyway, Can Our Love• is the sixth and latest installment in the quietly and beautifully unfolding story of The Tindersticks, and for all I know, the album’s as good as any of the others • they can do no wrong, or so I’m told. Having listened to the record more than a dozen times now, I’m inclined to believe it. Much like Nick Cave’s work with The Bad Seeds, The Tindersticks are timeless music: drawing from the past • in The Tindersticks’ case, the orchestral beauty and epic scope of prime Scott Walker, the stripped-down/minimal-is-maximal ethos of the Stax school of soul, the detached yet penetrating air of Nick Drake, but all points congealing into something narcotically their own • and sending it forward, not necessarily into the future, but into a no-man’s land where it will always remain a piece of art to be admired and never to grow stale. Basically, unless you’re an avid trainspotter, you’ll never be able to place a date(d) tag on music like this. From the slo-mo take on The Doors’ “The Changeling” in “Tricklin’” to the placid organ drone in “People Keep Comin’ Around” that’d make Sonic Boom green with envy to “Sweet Release” (exactly what it is), The Tindersticks display a dynamic contour that further exacerbates this assertion of timelessness. What else to say? Nothing, really, only that I’m utterly awe-struck at such brilliance. Groove on•forever, please.
Beggars Banquet, 580 Broadway, Suite 1004, New York, NY 10012; http://www.beggars.com, http://www.tindersticks.co.uk
