Customer Reviews

Tindersticks

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Tindersticks' first album is an eccentric, mournful, off-kilter, but marvellously original masterpiece. Stuart Staples' Vic Reeves impression may not be to everybody's tastes, but the chances are that if you don't hate it on first listen, you will grow to love that strange, melancholy baritone that imparts so much feeling into the Tindersticks' brilliant music.

The album gets off to a stuttering start, but when the first abortive bars of Blood kick in around track five, it begins to blossom into a beautifully wistful, brooding and slightly twisted work of art. As Staples croons "There's an ugly crowd inside me that specialise in violation", you begin to wonder just what it is he is singing about. City Sickness is one of the stand out tracks on an oustanding album, another slightly disturbing, but infectiously brilliant window into Stuart Staples' world. Patchwork is another gorgeous song, the heart of its melancholy beating in the line "I tried love, it never looked that hard", while Marbles is sheer brilliance, the band weaving a marvellously weird tapestry of sound, while Staples mutters about love being "a series of complicated dance steps, once learned, never forgotten". Later on, Jism sounds like The Gipsy Kings on acid, a dark, twisted tale of jealousy and revenge, the denouement coming when Staples asks "Is there anyone else? I'll understand - and kill them". The album's high point, however, comes with Raindrops, an unutterably bleak, hauntingly beautiful ode to dying love. As the violins swoon and the piano murmurs, and Staples whispers "We sit and watch the divide widen, we sit and listen to our hearts crumble" if you don't feel a lump in your throat, you are not human.

As the final bars of The Not Knowing fade into the ether, you seem to awaken from a sad, beautiful dream, with the feeling that you've lost a part of yourself, and will never be able to find it again. Embrace it.

Tindersticks (I) is a landmark debut. I fell in love with this album upon first listening. It's a 70 minute journey into late night drunken stories of loss, love and revenge.

On first play, the vocals just sound like a mumbling and morose man drawing his last breath, but then you walk away and cannot stop thinking about that voice. Stuart Staples is probably one of the finest male vocalists since Scott Walker.

And it's to Mr Walker's canon that the Tindersticks belong. Their songs are epics. Dense and complicated. Full of treasures to be unearthed with each listen. You can liken them to Nick Cave as well, although I feel they are vastly superior.

One of the greatest debuts ever. Buy it.

If you like any bands like Cousteau or mid 80's Tom Waits or anything at all like that you should own this record. Tindersticks simply do this music better than mostly anyone. The only people that may have ever topped them in this kind of sound would be their influences like Scott Walker and such, but they are simply the best at it by today's standards. As stated in a previous review, this album isn't for all times, but for late night listening it just doesn't get any better. They are probably the most important non-Britpop non-electronic british band of the 90's to be honest. Their body of work will probably hold up forever due to the great songwriting and this album simply has so much of that. The songs Patchwork and Blood are just two of the many amazing highlights on this record that are really worth hearing. Truly an essential listen.

Ah, Tindersticks, Tindersticks, Tindersticks....a sweet cocktail of melancholy, vitriol, seedy sexual practice and desperately tired, desperately lovely nocturnal music. Their debut is an uncut diamond, a sow's ear turned into a silk purse. Long, disjointed and shot through with despair and loneliness, it nevertheless lifts the spirit like few albums can. Stuart Staples' "unique" vocal style and the band's strange hybrid of folk and lounge somehow produce a sound which far oustrips the sum of its parts. The record gets off to a jumpy start but when "Blood" makes its abortive entrance, the album really digs its claws into you (albeit the claws of a knackered old cat you seem to have known all your life). "Blood" seems to be about erections (don't quote me on this) while "City Sickness" seems to be concerned with auto-eroticism. "Patchwork" is lovely and Marbles is marvellous. Later "Jism" is insanely jealous and darkly darkly, dark, while "Raindrops" has lost all hope whatsoever. "The Not Knowing" sees us at the end of a remarkable, surprising, entrancing journey, all gently medieval and sweetly vulnerable. See them live too - they make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up...

and was just blown away... Stuart Staples has a voice like a 18 year old single-malt: The first taste is a bit too strong but something about the smooth finish left behind lets you know you've discovered something great. Once you've adjusted, you develop a passion for the stuff and no matter how much your friends and family try to intervene, you know that their efforts are in vain because they just don't understand, man! Leave me alone, I don't have a problem! I've got it under control, it's cool... Let me just listen one more time...

Fortunately for the Tindersticks, Betty Ford doesn't have a clinic to keep us from their music...

Tindersticks master the art of musical melancholy on this beautiful album (1st LP). Sorrow, anger, and tragedy have all found their way into music, many times with moving results. Tindersticks realize that the value of making emotional music is in the emotion that it evokes. The deep, sad vocals float above often orchestral music that flows effortlessly, as if it were not written, but merely meant to be. Don't throw on this CD in the middle of your party... Save it for quality time.

Tindersticks are masters of luxuriant melancholy, with beautiful strings, off-kilter orchestration, lyrics of full of gorgeous dispair. They are easily one of the best bands to come along in the 90s.

There are, as other reviewers have mentioned, obvious influences and reference points incorporated into Tindersticks' music - Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, even Roxy Music. However, this band goes far beyond these influences, and creates a unique orchestral, languid sound.

I own most of Tindersticks' cds, and I would recommend this one as the place to start (or the only one to own, if you must have only one). It is the freshest, and most experimental. Tyed is an amazing, dark song. City Sickness is near perfection. There really isn't a weak song on the entire cd.

Note: these comments actually are directed to Tindersticks[I], not Tindersticks[II]. I noticed that Amazon has a hard time attaching the reviews to the right cd when it comes to these two cds. Tindersticks[I] is a stronger cd than [II], but both are excellent

Pocos grupos tienen un disco de presentacion tan impresionante. Tindesticks arma sus piezas con letras emotivas, donde abunda el desencanto y la desesperacion; con orquestaciones discretas y efectivas; con una voz casi monotonal (Stuart Staples) que recita, se obscurece y a veces canta, pero que se acopla de manera impecable a la musica y letra de las canciones; una banda que sin protagonismos individuales y muestras de virtuosismo innecesarias crea una atmosfera compleja y densa; y por ultimo lo que parece ser un organo Hammon desempolvado del cuarto de los triques, pero que todavia tiene mucho que decir. Sorprende que solo alcance 4 y media estrellas en Amazon y que no aparesca en "1001 Discos que hay que escuchar antes de morir", quizas porque seria musica apropiada para escuchar en el funeral. Indispensable!!!

this album is unbearably beautiful. I've never heard anything quite like it

I own more than 1,000 CD's: rock, jazz, classical, blues, etc.

I have never heard a debut album this perfect. Tindersticks first album is indeed timeless. Each song rewards repeat listenings, and the album works as a narrative in a really wonderful way.

The instrumentation and lyrics are as creative and powerful as any album ever released. The sense of tension, the balance between beauty and discord is unlike anything else, and quite powerful.