Tindersticks

Formati a Nottingham (Inghilterra) nel 1988, gli Asphelt Ribbons pubblicarono due singoli. Nel 1992 si trasferirono a Londra e cambiarono nomi in Tindersticks.

I singoli formativi Marbles (Tippy Toe, 1993), destinato a rimanere uno dei loro capolavori, Patchwork, A Marriage Made In Heaven (Rough Trade), Unwired (Domino, 1993), un brano acustico in bassa fedelta`, City Sickness (This Way Up), nenia liberamente ispirata al pop orchestrale degli anni '50, mettono in mostra soprattutto gli arrangiamenti vellutati, il tocco leggiadro degli strumenti, la dinamica elegante delle composizioni.

E a un disco di Leonard Cohen fa pensare l'album Tindersticks (This Way Up, 1993) della durata di oltre un'ora. I contrappunti chic del violino e i rintocchi spettrali dell'organo completano atmosfere torbide e morbose. Piu` che di canzoni rock si tratta di notturni per bordelli frequentati da filosofi. Staples sembra agognare di smarrirsi nel labirinto delle sue visioni, incalzato dalle ombre gigantesche di Tom Waits (il blues funereo di Jism), Nick Cave (la melodia esaltata di Whiskey And Water) e Leonard Cohen (la paralisi emotiva di Raindrops). La drammaturgia di Staples si affida non tanto al tono anemico del suo (monotono) baritono quanto agli interventi eterodossi degli strumenti dell'orchestra: i versi distratti dei fiati in Tyed, lo strimpellio del pianoforte in Drunk Tank, il flamenco frenetico della chitarra in Her, e cosi` via. L'effetto e` talvolta persino (involontariamente) comico, come nel duetto classicheggiante di oboe e violino in The Not Knowing. L'eccesso di serieta` finisce insomma per ritorcersi contro l'attore.
Il disco e` indubbiamente prolisso al limite della sopportabilita`, ma contiene momenti di tenera poesia. Il calvario di Staples ispira pero` poca compassione: Nectar, sospinta dai singhiozzi dei violini e da un frenetico jingle-jangle, propone l'unico momento di tregua dalla sua disperazione esistenziale.

Kathleen e No More Affairs preludono al secondo album, Tinderstick (This Way Up, 1995), altrettanto imponente. Stessi pregi e stessi difetti: l'atmosfera di El Diablo En El Ojo e` davvero di pura angoscia, quella di Seaweed e` davvero autunnale; Travelling Light e Mistakes sfoggiano melodie che aprono il cuore. Ma le lunghe ballad orchestrali (come A Night In e Tiny Tears) sono soltanto imitazioni di Aznavour e Sinatra. Troppi brani si trascinano stancamente senza aver nulla da dire, imbevuti di una poesia da sottoscala.

Viene pubblicata anche la colonna sonora per il film Nenette Et Boni (This Way Up, 1996) di Claire Denis, un disco per lo piu` strumentale che in certi momenti supera persino i due dischi ufficiali. Notturno, jazzato, ermetico, metafisico.

Il pop orchestrale prende invece la mano ai Tindersticks su Curtains (London, 1997), un album che delude non tanto per mancanza di buone canzoni o di liriche interessanti, ma semplicemente perche' indulge nell'archetipo che ha creato, una versione "laica" e salottiera del noir metafisico di Nick Cave (Another Night In Rented Rooms e Let's Pretend sembrano uscite dritte da Good Son).
Qualche brano (Ballad Of Tindersticks, Walking) sonda psicosi piu` sotterranee via un'armonia piu` liquida, ma Troppo spesso Staples si addormenta e il complesso si lascia trascinare con lui in un sonno scarsamente creativo. Anche quando il suono si rianima si odono citazioni imbarazzanti (Are You Trying To Fall In Love Again e` uno dei tanti brani "spagnoleggianti" e Bathtime scimmiotta involontariamente la colonna sonora di un serial televisivo degli anni '60).
Il poco di brio che questo disco conserva gli viene dai duetti melodrammatici, Buried Bones con Ann Magnuson e Marriage Made in Heaven con l'attrice Isabella Rossellini. Dopo cinque o sei canzoni il disco diventa snervante: sempre la stessa atmosfera, sempre la stessa melodia, sempre lo stesso tempo, sempre gli stessi arrangiamenti.
Boulter e Hinchliffe avevano avuto il merito di inventare questo sound malinconico e notturno, e adesso hanno la responsabilita` di averne abusato.

Nel clima esuberante del pop Britannico degli anni '90 i Tindersticks costituiscono una valida alternativa. La loro e` una tradizione, quella del pop orchestrale, che in Gran Bretagna e` sempre stata radicata e ha contagiato un po' tutti, da David Bowie a Elvis Costello, e ha affascinato in particolare gli spiriti intellettuali. I Tindersticks hanno provato a depurare quella tradizione, a riportare alla luce la vena piu` autenticamente borghese del genere.

Donkeys 92-97 is an anthology that collects tracks not released on the albums.

Simple Pleasure (Quicksilver, 1999) is not much of an achievement. The Tindersticks are a big band that simply plays easy-listening and lounge music (Can We Start Again). While at the beginning Tindersticks' music was a game of subtle emotions, the new game is artiness for the sake of artiness. It is not a coincidence that the band abandons the reliance on string instruments, the trademark of their early recordings.

The Tindersticks had had enough of depressed atmospheres and Can Our Love (Beggars Banquet, 2001) emancipates them from the stereotype of gloomy, funereal lounge music. Horns, strings and keyboards arrangements, not to mention Stuart Staples's high-pitched crooning, turned to what was basically an overdone version of rhythm'n'blues balladry and Mephis soul. If sometimes (Can Our Love) this sounds like a parody of romantic lounge crooners, the nine-minute Sweet Release (funky organ, mellow horns and strings) works at different levels: emotional, structural, and linguistic; i.e., it moves, it engages and it twists the genre's foundations. People Keep Comin' Around (flute, sax, violin, electric piano, organ) and the mildly anthemic Chilitetime (a tribute to the age of psychedelic soul) could be material for a thesis on revisiting period music. The album actually opens with a song in their old style, Dying Slowly, that could be straight from an old Leonard Cohen album ("this dying slowly / seemed better than shooting myself"). One major distraction (not attraction) is represented by Staples' vocals, that he probably overrates. All in all, this sounds like second-rate Van Morrison.

Tinderstick's soundtrack to Trouble Everyday (Connected, 2001), the band's second collaboration with French director Claire Denis, boasts one fantastic recreation of their original post-Tom Waits style, Trouble Every Day, but the rest is monotonous chamber muzak to accompany the film. It is not an organic flows of music, and it is not a collection of pretty songs. However, the band as a whole is maturing as a jazz/classical "auteur" of Gil Evans-ian ambitions and, despite the waste of strings, he proves to have the talent and the elegance to pull out more complex scores.

Waiting For The Moon (Beggars Banquet, 2003) is a more streamlined effort, and one of their least innovative. Until the Morning Comes is their best Leonard Cohen imitation yet: it will confuse Cohen himself into thinking it's a cover of one of his songs. Say Goodbye to the City is whispered in a manner that recalls both Morphine's melancholy and Nick Cave's poignancy, and then disheveled by a powerful tornado of horns a` la Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom. Waiting For The Moon is even more subdued, with a music-box melody played in the background, an accordion buzzing in the sky and a violin rising with the wind.
Unfortunately, the group wastes its talent with obnoxious pop ballads (Sweet Memory, that evoke Morrissey's most uninspired moments, or Trying To Find A Home, which is basically a variation on John Lennon's Imagine, or My Oblivion, worthy of Burt Bacharac's orchestral tortures). The duet Sometimes It Hurts is undoubtedly catchy and elegant, but perhaps more appropriate for Elton John (dance rhythm, romantic violins, female choir).
The Tindersticks are an easy-listening group that is ashamed of admitting it.

Working for the Man (2005) is a retrospective of the early years, up to Simple Pleasure (1999).

In 2006 multi-instrumentalist Dickon Hinchliffe left the band.

Stuart Staples composed the soundtrack for Claire Denis' film The Intruder (2005): a simple, subdued, lifeless loop of percussive noises, plucked guitar and agonizing trumpet.

Staples then released the solo album Leaving Songs (2006).

Hinchliffe was replaced by the string arrangements of Lucy Wilkins on The Hungry Saw (2008), whose ballads therefore sound positively like obnoxious Bacharach muzak.

Falling Down A Mountain (4AD, 2010) was a more eclectic collection that surveyed the whole universe of pop music from jazz-rock (Falling Down A Mountain) to Tamla soul (Harmony Around My Table, one of their catchiest songs ever), from the Velvet Underground (Black Smoke) to the ballad (Peanuts, a duet with Mary Margaret O'Hara), and including echoes of Ennio Morricone in both the instrumental Hubbard Hills and She Rode Me Down. Unfortunately most of the songs would have been left out from albums by the top purveyors of those genres.

The early film soundtracks, including Rhums (2008) and White Material (2009), were collected on Claire Denis Film Scores: 1996-2009 (2011).

The Something Rain (2012) was another varied set that applied class and sophisticated to the nine-minutes spoken-word kammerspiel Chocolate, to the noir soul-rock Show Me Everything, to the ballad Medicine, and the usual dose of Morricone in Goodbye Joe, with even a lively song This Fire of Autumn to shatter the stereotype of the Tendersticks as funeral music. If the previous album only had Harmony Around My Table to justify its existence, this one had at least one ambitious composition and a couple of accomplished mood pieces.

Staples continued to compose scores for Claire Denis, including the electronic and ambient Les Salauds (2013) and the more conventional High Life (2018).

Across Six Leap Years (2013) contains ten live re-recordings of old songs.

Staples and and McKinna also composed orchestral music for a museum, collected on Ypres (2014), notably the 20-minute The Third Battle of Ypres in the sustained droning vein of Arvo Part, and the slightly more dramatic 13-minute Whispering Guns Parts 1, 2 and 3.

The Waiting Room (2016) is another dose of relaxing chamber pop for aging fans. Staples sometimes sounds like Leonard Cohen (in the male parts of Hey Lucinda) and David Bowie (Were We Once Lovers) and even Alan Vega (the first half of We Are Dreamers).

Staples also composed the soundtrack for and directed the documentary Minute Bodies (2016), a tribute to naturalist and photographer Frank Percy Smith, a pioneer of time-lapse. The score is not much to talk about but the visuals are impressive, a collage of original "videos" of living beings made by Smith.

No Treasure But Hope (2019) is full of inferior songs but it contains a few decent ones in a variety of styles, from the sentimental ballad of the 1950s (The Amputees) to stately orchestral waltz (Pinky in the Daylight). The musical highlight is an unusually lively song, the exotic folk dance See My Girls with a hammering piano pattern, an emphatic delivery and an ominous backing voice that recall Nick Cave.