Customer Reviews

Falling Down a Mountain

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the album # 8 from the Nottingham-based indie rock band -that features vocalist Stuart Staples, keyboardist David Boulter, guitarist Neil Fraser and long-time associate trumpeter Terry Edwards - in an almost twenty years career.
In "Falling Down A Mountain" they are breaking very little new ground: it takes off all jazzy and moody on the self titled opener - fractured percussion gives way to freeform-jazz saxophone and repeated chanting - but things are back to business on "Keep It Beautiful" with the crooner (and he sure is) expressing some hope.
It contains several worthy additions to Tindersticks' canon of hangdog torch balladry, notably the aforementioned "Keep You Beautiful" - sighing, minimal, disarmingly gorgeous -, the Johnny Cash-style Mexicana of "She Rode Me Down", and the tender, piano-heavy ballad and plain perfectly Tindersticks-ish "Factory Girls".
There are also a couple of instrumentals, a habit Tindersticks seem to have acquired from their excursions into film soundtracks (recent outings of this sort have included Claire Denis's "35 Shots of Rum" and the upcoming "White Material", and the accompaniment to a Louis Vuitton collection).
Harmony Round My Table is set at higher pace, handclaps and the joys that he had some extra luck a couple of weeks ago, its just great enjoying someone else's misery, and its even got handclaps, which is always a bonus.
"Hubbard Hills" is a sepulcral, trumpet-led lament, while "Piano Music" exactly what it says it is - a knelling, tinkling, gorgeously soporific confection that sounds, appropriately, like it was purposefully left unburdened by lyrics in anticipation of some closing credits to play behind.
On "She Rode Me", which sounds like the intro to a Spagettti Western, and on Hubbard Hills and Piano Music they're just showing off on how many instruments they can actually play and make sound good together. So, if you like film scores, then you'll love this.
As said before, there's nothing new on this album that will manage to win many new fans. And yet it's probably the least Tindersticks-esque album of their career. The core ingredients are still there: Stuart Staples' polarising, treacle-rich baritone, beautifully haunting string arrangements and the pervading sense of disappointment and loss. However, add to this a willingness to diversify and be imaginative, and Tindersticks are once more extremely deserving of your time.
Tindersticks' music has always been broad in scope with a cinematic feel, but it just seems here that they're maturing into a more well-rounded band.
"It appears Tindersticks have gained a second wind. Forget the press, forget the criticism and forget those who ignore you. When you make an album this good, you don't need to care.
After all, a band who began by expressing twilight ennui have nowhere else to go. It's a sombre thing, but somehow warm with it. Duetting with Mary Margaret O'Hara on the sweet Memphis-soul-flavoured "Peanuts", you could even call Staples an optimist". - Simon Price.
No longer so heavily reliant on the dramatic brooding that characterised much of their early-90s work, with "Falling Down A Mountain" they may have just added another spacious and utterly affecting gem to a very impressive and distiguished career.
The Hungry Saw

It took some time to get it all in our heads, but now it just stays in our stereo permanently (it's there for almost half year now).

Less orchestral-sounding and with a heavy increase on a jazzy, spontaneous feel - the reincarnation of the Tindersticks following the departure of several members a few years ago has found its stride with this impressive album. Too short, and with two instrumentals out of ten songs being my only criticism, it holds together and flows in one listening beautifully. Each song a complement to the next and previous. Such a shame that this will largely go unnoticed in the US, it should appear on "Best Of" lists in a just world.

It looks like Tindersticks is never going to regain the winning formula that made their first four records so memorable. Oh, there have been good songs on subsequent albums, but they have never again been so packed with great songs as the fabled first four were. I'm all for an artist "growing", but with the release of Falling Down A Mountain, it seems like Stuart Staples and his band are growing in the wrong direction.
The title cut sets the awful tone for this album, its really an embarrassment. Then you have the cheesy faux Motown of Harmony Around My Table and a goofy duet in Peanuts. Running neck and neck with the title cut for the worst song on the album is Black Smoke with its grating background vocals. What's good? Well, She Rode Me Down is a great song and just the kind of tune that made me like the band in the first place. Then you have Hubbards Hills and Piano Music which are both decent instrumentals. But beyond those highlights, this album is very weak.
Falling Down A Mountain comes attractively packaged and is accompanied by a booklet containing some pictures, lists of who played what on each song BUT no lyrics. No doubt some will like this album, but obviously I find it a bit of a disappointment. If you are an old-time fan of Tindersticks but haven't heard what they've been up to lately, I suggest you try to hear this before you buy it. Forewarned is forearmed.