Curtains by Tindersticks (Review)

Curtains is Tindersticks’ third studio album, and includes quest vocals by singer/actress Ann Magnuson on the duet “Buried Bones” and additional brass from esteemed salsa trumpeters Jesus Alemany and Joe de Jesus. Like its predecessors, the album was produced by the band with Ian Caple.

Curtains sees Tindersticks consolidate and build upon the wry intimacy and skewed pop sensibilities that has seen them regularly top critics’ polls. While the album features arguably some of the band’s most straightforward forays into pop — notably “(Tonight) Are You Trying To Fall In Love Again,” it also includes possibly their most pained confessionals since “The Not Knowing” in “Don’t Look Down,” “I Was Your Man,” and particularly the sparse, disquieting “Bearsuit.”

Dickon Hinchliffe’s extraordinarily accomplished string arrangements find the band gravitating to the widescreen dynamics that previous releases have hinted at and “Ballad of the Tindersticks” sees Stuart Staples turning his acerbic wit to a spoken autobiography in the vein of “My Sister.”

The band will return to North America for a tour late summer, early Fall.

Written by Jeff Keibel.