The Something Rain [Explicit]

"The Something Rain", Tindersticks' ninth album, stubbornly holds fast to the group's branded, nocturnal avant-pop, one that holds within it everything from subtly 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 recording they've made in over a decade -- it's just that it's (mostly) very subtle.
For instance, 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 narration. It's a rather brave way to open a recording.
"This Fire of Autumn" is an uncharacteristically uptempo number, driven by bass and guitars with an organ and other keys shifting through the backdrop and highlighted by a snare. The shock comes on the refrain, where Staples' protagonist is propelled ever forward into a dangerous possibility of love. As if to accentuate this, he is joined on the refrain by a female backing chorus in full lounge-R&B croon à la Leonard Cohen.
"A Night So Still", with its cheap drum machine loops, reverbed guitars, and keyboards is nonetheless a seductive and powerful tune.
So purposefully restrained is its seductive narrative, it creates a nearly unbearable tension that doesn't release.
"Medicine", the single, is a languid, velvety ballad. It's a fine contrast to the proceeding cut; "Frozen" could be remix by a '90s drum'n'bass producer, and 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 in soundtrack mode again 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 subtle but certain spirit of chance. T Jurek

The two preceding `comeback' albums by the Sticks were far from perfect though both certainly had their moments, `The Hungry Saw' saw the band take a predominantly stripped down approach leaning heavily on their trademark ballads, `Falling Down a Mountain' was looser with a far more inviting warm production but was found slightly lacking in both the lyric and melody departments. It is with a sense of relief that I don't have to label this latest offering, `The Something Rain', in the same way - as merely a qualified success. Instead we find Staples and Co firing on all cylinders, somewhat unexpectedly returning with an album of all killer, no filler.

`The Something Rain' opens with the decidedly brave nine minute spanning spoken word `Chocolate' and as a mood setter I can't think of anything more perfect, it just adds dramatic weight to proceedings right from the off. I think I just might prefer it to the similar `My Sister' from the second self titled album, it is that good. `Show Me Everything' opens the album proper and sets the tone, smooth and slinky soul - a style that the boys return to again and again, particularly on the horn heavy `Slippin' Shoes' (listen out for the fantastic outro) and the twinkly ballads `A Night So Still', `Medicine' (beautiful strings) and `Come Inside' which recalls the excellent `My Oblivion' from 2003's `Waiting for the Moon'.

Some welcome experimentation is provided by two of the standout cuts from the disc, the stunning wandering bass line and glockenspiel embellished `This Fire of Autumn' and the breathless spy movie soundtrack paranoia of `Frozen' - it is not unreasonable to suggest that this is some of the best material produced in the band's nine album spanning career.

An unexpected classic and it goes without saying this is an essential purchase for established fans and reaffirms the Tindersticks as true masters of the evocative late-night soundtrack.

It takes a certain perversity to open an album with the lugubrious 9 minute spoken word "Chocolate" especially when so many subsequent tracks would have made ideal openers. Even the Velvet Underground sequenced "The Gift" after the eponymous, uptempo, title track on "White Light White Heat". Perhaps the Tindersticks think, possibly rightly, that the majority of those who purchase and listen to "The Something Rain" will be die-hard fans (and I, for one, cannot believe it is over 18 years since I played the band's debut relentlessly in my first term at university) and who will be unconcerned with the consequences. "Chocolate" has variously delighted and left non-plussed critics and, while I think it is a compelling listen once the opening lo-fi repeated chord strums cease, it is simply not the best way to introduce or shape an album.

Thereafter, proverbial monkey off their back, the Tindersticks demonstrate their mastery of their art, whether one calls it "noir bossa-nova", "existential easy listening" or countless other amusing epithets bandied around in the last week. For me though, on tracks like "Slippin' Shoes", they simply confirm their status as the best British soul band since Dexys Midnight Runners. For those previously divided by Stuart Staples' baroque croon, it is not nearly as theatrical as previously (save, perhaps, for "A Night So Still") and simply amounts to an integral part of the band's overall sound.

And so, in answer to the ultimate question as to whether I would recommend this, the answer is "yes" for while the Tindersticks do not exactly break new ground this is a worthy addition to their impressive catalogue, as suitable as any introduction for the curious (sequencing excepted) and very simply something rather good indeed.