Simple Pleasure [IMPORT]

Tindersticks

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 19, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Universal/Polygram
• ASIN: B00001R3LI
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #240,735 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 1999
The Tindersticks' formula is unique and deceptively simple: combine Stuart Staples's heart-on-sleeve, Leonard Cohen-on-Quaaludes vocals, a rainy-day orchestral lushness, a small dose of R&B swagger, and a whole heap of sexual angst. Simple Pleasures doesn't depart from that potent concoction at all, adding to the overall greatness of their oeuvre. Think of their albums as lovely seashells: they are all recognizably the same thing, but the particular shell you hold in your hand is singular and beautiful. --Tod Nelson

Product Description
1999 & fifth album from this acclaimed English indie rock with a strong cult following and a sound that resembles Nick Cave & Bryan Ferry or Lloyd Cole joining forces. Nine tracks, including the single 'Can We Start Again?'.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tindersticks go disco? Say it isn't so..., September 23, 1999

By A Customer

But it is...This CD sounds like a Barry White record as recorded by Leonard Cohen. At first I didn't like 'Simple Pleasure,' certainly not as much as their brilliant first album, mainly because the ornate orchestral arrangements just weren't there. But slowly this record worked it's way into me, and hasn't yet left. This isn't as dramatic, or even as sad, as some other Tindersticks stuff. There are very few horns on this record, and certainly nothing like the grand flourishes that marked the best parts of their last record, 'Curtains,' such as on the song "Let's Pretend." Also, this is the shortest Tindersticks record ever--before this, all three records had been double LPs, while this one is only nine tracks long, features a cover and an instrumental. Still, what's here is totally fantastic. It works splendidly as a whole, and the first single, "Can We Start Again?" is a gem. The back-up singers add a terrific touch. This isn't your usual Tindersticks, but as much as I miss their old style, I'm glad to see them branching out and trying to sound new. A beautiful mood record--I'll be listening to it for years.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This plays 'Dubliners' to their earlier 'Ulysees', October 7, 1999

By	Michael Pessah, Esq. - See all my reviews

Though I normally hesitate to compare bands to great literary figures, I look at Simple Pleasure as a 'Dubliners' to the 'Ulysses' of the earlier albums.

The first Tindersticks albums were huge (60 to 74 minutes) works, with a narrative line carried from the first track to the last. Songs repeated, but with different lyrics, or arrangements. Orchestras, alarm clocks, overlapping lyrics and spoken word were used masterfully to tell complex, often upsetting but sometimes funny stories. Tindersticks exploded songs, and then reassembled them in fascinating ways.

Simple Pleasure, however, is not an ambitious masterwork, like the earlier Tindersticks albums. It, like 'Dubliners', is a couple of carefully constructed pieces built around a (musical) theme -- R+B or soul music.

Of course, in addition to being conceptual artists, Tindersticks are great musicians, and that is just as clear here as in any of their other works. Their rhythm section is still amazingly tight and inventive, and Dickon's arrangements still fit perfectly within the song. And Stuart Staples' singing is always a pleasure to hear, especially since he seems to be enjoying the change in pace.

I haven't listened to the album enough times to decide if the lyrics reach the heights achieved in their earlier albums. They do seem to be less maudlin (especially compared to Curtains), which is either good or bad, depending upon your outlook.

In short: would Simple Pleasure be the first Tindersticks album I recommend to a friend, probably not, but it is still better than almost everything else out there.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This album should carry a health warning, June 22, 2000

By	D. John Archer "John Archer" (UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For me there's no other band out there to touch the Tindersticks. Within days of buying their first album four or five years ago, all my other albums started to lose significance. I kid you not. Every album from them since has ensnared me further, and now Simple Pleasure has finally forced me to give in and accept that nearly every album I've ever bought that's not by The Tindersticks is, relatively speaking, rubbish. In some ways Simple Pleasure is perhaps not as strong as its predecessors; it's got only 9 songs on it, and a couple of those (Pretty Words and From The Inside) are decidedly average. But the other seven are so astonishingly perfect that you may well find yourself wondering, like me, why the hell anyone else even bothers. The songs tackle a huge palette of emotions and thoughts effortlessly without once forgetting to fit them to gorgeous, utterly appropiate melodies. Just remember this: once you've listened properly (for background music it is definitely not) to Simple Pleasure and the other three complete albums from the band half a dozen times each, you'll find yourself totally addicted, unable to play anything else and unable to do anything else while you're listening. Don't say you weren't warned...