Tindersticks – The Waiting Room – Album Review by Killian Laher

Tindersticks have been around for more than 20 years now, with a brief hiatus in the early part of the last decade, and Stuart Staples and co have built up a sizeable back catalogue over ten albums plus assorted soundtracks. While the band deals mainly in cinematic melancholia, some of their albums have strayed heavily into soul territory with mixed results. This album attempts to straddle both sides of their output, but this time around they struggle with the soul element, the call-and-response style Help Yourself really doesn’t work. The more muted soul touches found on Second Chance are more successful, though the track isn’t hugely memorable it drifts along pleasantly, as does the title track. Were We Once Lovers? picks up the pace but fails to really ignite, while Hey Lucinda is a duet between Staples and the late Lhasa de Sela (recorded five years ago), and it’s perhaps a little too similar to his solo duet with Maria McKee from ten years ago, This Road Is Long.

The instrumental material by and large works well. The opening cover of Bronislau Kaper’s Follow Me features a lonely sounding accordion, and could easily be utilised in one of collaborator Claire Denis’ films, while Fear of Emptiness and Planting Holes operate as pleasant interludes. How He Entered is a classic Tindersticks spoken word tale over gorgeous sweeping strings and subdued brass, and it’s arguably the standout track. Later, We Were Dreamers, is one of the darker Tindersticks tracks in their catalogue, an omninous drone over which Sturat Staples’ sinister croon laments about dreamers “over our shoulder, who’ll steal our ideas”. But they follow this, and conclude the album with a ray of sunshine in the shape of Like Only Lovers Can, the most upbeat track here. It’s one of the better tracks but it doesn’t sound like it should naturally follow We Are Dreamers.

So this time around it seems Tindersticks have turned in one of their less coherent, indeed, ropier albums. Perhaps it’s time for another Claire Denis soundtrack?

Tracklist –

1. Follow Me
2. Second Chance
3. Were We Once Lovers?
4. Help Yourself
5. Hey Lucinda
6. Fear of Emptiness
7. How He Entered
8. The Waiting Room
9. Planting Holes
10. We Are Dreamers
11. Like Only Lovers Can

Were We Once Lovers?