Tindersticks
In 1993, this was met with ecstatic praise by the UK music press. It's not to see why they would have been so keen on something like this, considering how little else like this was emerging at the time. Even without the brilliant 1991 version of Talk To Me which first got tongues wagging, the album was received as one of the year's masterpieces. But 17 years later, and in the wake of followers such as The National,Arab Strap and The Dears making this sound somewhat familiar, it is time to reassess this to see if it holds up.
The album begins with the Beatlesesque pop of Nectar, which would take anyone whose knowledge of the Tindersticks consists of their reputation as emotionally despondent merchants of doom would suggest. However, lyrically the track is a primer for what is to come, with it's lyrics lamenting a crushing loneliness from a love having run it's course. The album then reveals it's true colours on Tyed and Whiskey and Water, both far more musically challenging and lyrically bleak pieces which show how impressive the band's instrumental ability and willingness to experiment are even on this debut record. The only things which unite the songs on this album are the themes of loss, alienation, lust and despair, with the album straying over territory from Leonard Cohen-esque ballardry( the startlingly dark Piano Song), to flamenco numbers (Her) to a kind of warped pop that suggests Lee Hazlewood singing the songs of Tom Waits(City Sickness, Patchwork). Despite all this, the album is never inaccessible, perfectly sequenced so as to accomadate a wide variety of moods and styles perfectly, and smartly using instrumentals and spoken word interludes to create a cinematic feel to the proceedings, albeit a film which dosn't exist which suggests some odd hybrid of French New Wave, Sweet Smell Of Success and British kitchen sink dramas of the early 60's. Whilst that may sound bizarre, Staples' vocals and the band's playing manage to make this concept fully convincing, and hit upon a sound which whilst looking to the past manages to sound not in the slightest retro and fully developed.
In conclusion, a startingly mature and fully realised debut which never comes across as overambitous or unoriginal by virtue of it's brilliantly creative meshing of influences, excellent songwriting and sense of possibilty. Whilst Tindersticks may have made better albums, they never made one with quite this sense of possibility and energy.
9.5