Customer Reviews

Tindersticks

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Usually, I'd let the music of this masterpiece live up the title I just bestowed on it, but I'll do my best here.

This second LP shows a fully realized body of work of somber, painfully personal and sometimes extremely dark affecting music. The lyrics are so amazing, it's bewildering how all the thoughts ended up so dead-on and gorgeous. Stuart paints some dark and lovely landscapes for the beautiful band backing him. This second CD also sees the band slowing the tempo and deeping the thought. Songs like "Cherry Blossoms" and "She's Gone", are stripped bare right before your ears. Both haunting your head with each word and each note. Chilling piano, artfully mastered strings and a full range of horns add to the delicious mix already present.

There's even psuedo-childhood tales of terrible relatives gone bad and eventually sad. ("My Sister") This of course is delivered with a very playful bit of music, twisting the sad story into a dark humorous one that a long lost relative might leave in their journal. The disc becomes even grand in nature at times. The overwhelming "Tiny Tears" and heartfelt "Talk To Me", thrive with a lush production and stylish delivery reserved for much more high-profiled records. A very nice side effect to being a great band with this particular disc.

This is a perfect mood record. (NO, not like Enya) I find myself getting lost within its trees at times half-way uncomfortable, but always wanting to explore more. It's a record that begs for candle lit walls and tall glasses of red wine. For severe quiet and almost gut-wrenching attention. It's ... , it's beautiful, it's deviant and it's dirty. It wants the listener to lay down on the floor, stare into space and take it all in. It's all of this and so much more.

Now Stuart's Nick Cave-like voice might not be everyone's cup of tea, but the sheer quality of it along with the music, makes one forget any short-comings that this record simply DOES NOT HAVE. It is my favorite record because it offers something bands like Radiohead only fail to deliver, a truely unique experience. This is not a jab at Radiohead mind you, but I just want to point out that a record like Kid A can never hold a candle to this disc. Yes it's that good. I will only say get it if you are truely OPEN-MINDED and have a jones for something amazing that has really gone over-looked.

The last ten years have given us music lovers a great collection of wonderful and diverse records...file this one under both.

After hearing Tindersticks' debut album, I thought there was no way that the band could equal or surpass that masterpiece with any subsequent album. When I bought this sometime later, I maintained that opinion until I sat down and really listened to it.
Tindersticks II continues in the same vein mined by the first album: sadness, loneliness, confusion, and alienation abound.
Though I do not care for the whispery style of a couple of the cuts which make them hard to decipher, Tindersticks II is packed with the kind of morose, bittersweet, and melancholy songs that might have some ready to take the gas pipe, but that put me into an attitude of introspection and calm reflection on the vagaries of love and life. The "duende" in the music is palpable and that "duende" is what makes this such a masterful and unforgettable recording. And Stuart Staples' deep, rich and sensitive voice is the perfect vehicle for communicating that "duende".
My favorites include the spare and somber Tiny Tears with its lonely, soulful organ, the driving Snowy In F# Minor (so reminiscent of Arthur Lee), the instrumentals Vertrauen II and III, the spirited Talk to Me, the regretful No More Affairs, the lilting She's Gone, and the mournful Mistakes.
Also important is a fine duet featuring Stuart Staples and Carla Torgerson on Travelling Light, a tale of separation and recrimination.
Tindersticks II is a powerful recording that has earned a spot in my heavy rotation. I highly recommend this CD to any music fans who like a touch of darkness in their music. The only negative is the lack of lyrics with the liner notes. Check it out, Tindersticks won't disappoint you.

This second Tindersticks album is a lengthy exploration of many melancholy moods, lifted in places by exquisite orchestral arrangements and inspiring melodies. The lyrics are often oblique as in the songs El Diablo, a subdued, almost whispered piece that ends in discordant sounds, and A Night In, a similar lugubrious excursion with nice melodic twists and turns.

I am not sure whether the track My Sister is done with tongue in cheek, but it lists an unbearable catalogue of woes and would qualify for one of the most depressing songs of all time along with Gloomy Sunday and sundry songs by Swans, Nick Cave and Kevin Coyne. A whispered voice behind the lead vocal and some mournful violin give it an eerie touch.

The organ contributions in the mix really impress, as on the tuneful ballad Tiny Tears. Although not a feel-good number either, it provides welcome relief after all of the sorrow of My Sister. The instrumental Vetrauen II is a moody evocative number and Talk To Me is a sombre ballad with a nervous rhythm that evolves into a huge orchestral sound. No More Affairs is another gloomy affair that would make Nick Drake proud, whilst the ironically titled Singing is a lovely organ instrumental.

The album's transcended moment arrives in the form of the powerful duet Travelling Light, a stunning composition with an uplifting effect despite its images of separation and mood of resignation. The next one, Cherry Blossoms, has an interesting vocal arrangement that gives it a haunting quality. Fans of Scott Walker, Joy Division and Leonard Cohen will find much to appreciate in Tindersticks.

The Tindersticks were really at the top their game when they recorded this record. They had just come off recording their amazing debut and released this only a year later. It makes me wonder how someone could release so much good music in such a short period of time, especially nowadays when most artists need 2-3 years to come up with enough creativity for a whole album. Basically a filler free record that I think basically everyone can enjoy a whole lot. I play this all the time where I work and people always come up to ask me about it and not just older folks but people of all ages. I really think this band is very accessible on this album. They just combine so many good elements in their music that it almost always works. Oh, and the songwriting isn't too shabby either.

Tindersticks can't be easily shoehorned into a current "genre". And that may account for their relative obscurity. But this is one of the best 70 minutes of music you can find today. The baritone vocals and hauting melodies make for a gorgeous soundscape. Very unique and rewarding musical experience. I'd kill to see them in concert.

This was the first Tindersticks album I ever bought, after reading good reviews about them and I was looking for some new artists to listen to. When I first heard the album I thought "What did I just buy?" It was unlike anything else in my collection. The music had to grow on me but it did eventually. This band is like good literature set to music. You have to immerse yourself in the lyrics and melodies for the full experience. I especially like the little things on this album, for instance the piano parts on "Seaweed", one of my favorite tracks. And the xylophone-like keyboards(?) on "My Sister" which has some of the best lyrics of the decade. Tindersticks will probably never break into the Top 40 but that doesn't matter. In 10-15 years future artists will point back to this band as a huge influence.

I loved Tindersticks ever since I heard and then bought their first LP. I never thought they would make another, but then this arrived and it did the seemingly impossible, which is improve on perfection.

This collection of gems solidifies the sound they defined their own with the first album. It's the Tindersticks album you have to own if you like them.

Impossible to pick a favorite track. I saw them all come alive on stage when the band toured to promote this album. 70 minutes of pure genius. You pick a track then end up listening to the whole thing anyway.

One of my favourite albums of all time, this one is essential if you like dark, sweeping late night music. Come enjoy this fine band today. You will be enriched.

This album is pure atmosphere. Dark and dreary but at the same time hauntingly familiar. Not familiar in the sense that it sounds like anything else. Not even close. More like music that would be played in the background of your dreaming. Light some candles and dream away.

When I heard Tiny Tears played in the background when Tony was losing it on the Sopranos, flipped out. Bought this CD, and glad I did! After I delve into it some more,will buy another of their CD's. Wow!

There are few creations that I hold as dear to me as I do this album, there's a magic woven all throughout this recording that I've been coming back to again and again for 10 years. This is probably the album I'll be listening to when I know I'm about to go.