The Something Rain Tindersticks Artist

{|The Something Rain|}, {|Tindersticks|}' ninth album, stubbornly holds fast to the group's branded, nocturnal avant-pop, one that holds within it everything from elegantly textured electronics and touches of jazz to cabaret, chanson, and melancholy... Read more

{|The Something Rain|}, {|Tindersticks|}' ninth album, stubbornly holds fast to the group's branded, nocturnal avant-pop, one that holds within it everything from elegantly textured electronics and touches of jazz to cabaret, chanson, and melancholy indie pop. Vocalist {|Stuart Staples|}' signature dulcet baritone is as haunting as ever: it shivers almost constantly atop a mix that contains everything from carefully layered keyboards, bowed bass and cellos to spidery guitars, vibes, minimal drum kits, reeds, and loops. That {|Tindersticks|}' sonic universe is so carefully attended and guarded doesn't mean there isn't growth or daring -- this is the most urgent and erotically chargerd recording they've made in over a decade -- it's just that it's (mostly) very subtle. The album opens with the nine-minute Chocolate. The music is a soundtrack accompanying a spoken word vocal by {|David Boulter|}. He relates a narrative with a startling punch line. Saxophones, acoustic guitars, glockenspiel, bass, piano, and organ all shimmer and slip beneath his calm exterior delivery. It's a rather brave way to open any recording. This Fire of Autumn is uncharacteristically uptempo , driven by bass and guitars, with an organ and other keys shifting through the backdrop and highlighting a snare. The shock comes on the refrain, where {|Staples|}' protagonist is propelled ever forward into the possibility of a particularly dangerous, consumptive, love affair. As if to accentuate this, a female backing chorus in full lounge-R&B croon a la {|Leonard Cohen|} haunts the refrain. A Night So Still, with its cheap drum machine loops, reverbed guitars, and keyboards is nonetheless powerful. So purposefully restrained is its seductive narrative, it creates a nearly unbearable tension. Medicine, the single, is a languid, velvety ballad. It's a fine contrast to the proceeding cut; Frozen could have been remixed by a '90s-era drum'n'bass producer, its gently dissonant saxophones and smoky, down-in-the-mix vocal by {|Staples|} would make it a great 12. Come Inside, with its gently undulating Rhodes piano, evokes the tender atmospherics of jazz pianist {|Hampton Hawes|}' {|Universe|} album. The set closes once more in soundtrack mode with Goodbye Joe, an instrumental that directly evokes {|Ennio Morricone|}'s spaghetti westerns. {|The Something Rain|}'s grace, elegance, and beauty, are enhanced throughout by its quiet daring and spirit of chance. ~ Thom Jurek Less