Single Of The Week: Tindersticks 'Boobar Come Back To Me'

Predictable? TracksandGigs?

'Boobar' has to be single of the week because it is one of the best songs I've heard all year and I never, ever get tired of hearing it. A beautiful song about trying to find something you have lost, it builds from a slow, acoustic start to a massive Spector-esque ending that will make you fall in love with Tindersticks just a little bit more than you already had. Absolutely stunning, but I have said this many times already this year so...

The 'B Side' is 'Tout L'Amour', which is a re-recording of 'All The Love' from 'The Hungry Saw'...but sung in French....by drummer Thomas Belhom. It is very nice indeed.

This is a limited 7" single with only 600 copies available worldwide. You could of course buy it digitally on itunes but how soul-less would that make you? No, what you want to be doing is popping over to www.piccadillyrecords.com or www.normanrecords.com and giving them £4 in exchange for one of these little beauties. You'll feel so much better about life if you do.

You'll be ecstatic to see that we have now managed to have a 'Single of the Week' two weeks in a row and three weeks out of four!! Next week is well and truly up for grabs though because we had pencilled in 'Carpetbaggers' by Jenny Lewis but thats been put back to the 13th so if you have any suggestions, drop TracksandGigs a line.

['Boobar' is out Monday on 7" and download]

Low 'The Black Session'

Not a cd this, or an LP, or an official release, but something so fantastic that I have to write about it anyway.

The frustrating thing about Low's last LP 'Drums and Guns' is that it is their weakest to date, not because of the quality of songwriting or performances from Alan, Mimi and BassistNotZak, but because of the god-awful and downright weird production by enemy of this blog, Dave Fridmann. See my rantings about this in my review of the 'You May Need A Murderer' dvd. If you've seen Low live lately, you'll know that played live, these songs are just as beautiful as those on the likes of 'Secret Name' and 'Things We Lost In The Fire'. I always wondered how the album might have sounded without the strange production.

To a certain extent, wonder no longer.

Go here:

http://www.archive.org/details/Low2007-04-23.Black_Session.FM.flac16

Last year, Low recorded a wonderful Black Session for the Frenchman with the impeccable taste, Bernard Lenoir. It is a remarkable recording. Songs like 'Sandinista' and 'Dragonfly' are transformed into brooding, slow, beautiful pieces with trademark harmonies from Alan and Mimi. It is the classic Low album that never was. And if that isn't enough, there are stunning versions of 'Sunflowers' and 'Laser Beam' too. How much better can it get?

Jenny Lewis 'Acid Tongue'

Rilo Kiley singer and former child actress Jenny Lewis returns with her second solo album. The first, 2006's 'Rabbit Fur Coat' was a lovely country/soul affair complete with singalong version of Travelling Wilburys' 'Handle With Care'. This album is something else altogether.

There have been some great records released this year, but few can match the ambition and vision that is present here, or the songwriting and performances. 'Acid Tongue' was recorded in three weeks, live in the studio (no pro-tools) with friends and collaborators including M Ward, Zooey Deschanel and Elvis Costello.

In many ways the opening couple of tracks serve as an introduction for the amazing songs that are to come. 'Black Sand' and 'Pretty Bird' are simple and pretty, neither would have been out of place on 'Rabbit Fur Coat'. Things get interesting with 'The Next Messiah' a huge, 10 minute epic taking in four separate musical pieces and featuring some superb electric guitar from Blake Mills. After the soulful 'Bad Man's World' the album builds into a simply incredible sequence of songs.

The title track is almost entirely vocal driven, featuring confessional verses and a big, gospel sounding chorus. You'll be singing it all day. 'See Fernando', a wry song about a drug dealer, is a blast, guitar led and catchy. 'Godspeed' is a beautiful piano ballad with a touching lyric about a friend on the wrong path. 'Carpetbaggers' is an upbeat country romp with a thrilling vocal from Elvis Costello. 

After another couple of songs that sound like soul standards...almost motown country, if that genre exists, the album ends with 'Sing A Song For Them' a kind of updated version of Dexys' 'I'll Show You'. Simply gorgeous.

This record is a revelation. I expected to like it but the sheer quality of the songwriting and performances and the scale of ambition make this one of the albums of the year so far. Superb.

9.0

['Acid Tongue' is out now on Rough Trade. Jenny Lewis tours UK in October]

Emiliana Torrini 'Me and Armini'

The only things I knew about Icelandic singer-songwriter Emiliana Torrini before listening to this album were:

1. She wrote 'Slow' for Kylie.

2. I was considering buying her last album, 'Fisherman's Woman', but my friend Jason bought it and texted me saying "don't buy this. it is really boring".

Not facts that would normally inspire me to buy a record but something about the blurb for this one and the reviews it got made me think it might have some of the edge of a Stina Nordenstam record.

'Fireheads' which opens and 'Gun' which comes near the end are not far off fulfilling this promise. Dark and tense, acoustic guitar mixed with beats, they make for engaging listens. In between, the album attempts a number of different styles rather like a poor cricketer so desperate to get in the team that he claims he can bat, bowl and keep wicket. We have upbeat electro-pop ('Me And Armini'), strange songs that remind me of 1990s Australian pop band Frente ('Big Jumps') and absolutely bizarre mish-mashes with vocal immitations of drums ('Jungle Drums').

Virtually everything else is bland, mid tempo coffee shop music. It won't disturb you but it won't interest you enough to stop you reading your paper and drinking your coffee. Nothing wrong with coffee music of course, but you wouldn't want to buy it. I have nothing to add to this, except to say that before anyone accuses me of only listening to this once, I made several attempts to like it and that meant that I had to listen to 'Jungle Drums' on more than one occasion. Not easy.

3.0

Single Of The Week

yes, its once again time to pretend that we come up with a Single of The Week every week....but anyway....this week, by a country mile, it is...

Micah P Hinson 'We Won't Have To Be Lonesome'

Micah P Hinson's latest album '...Red Empire', is a stunning collection of country-noir ballads. If ever an album merited the description 'warm and beautiful' this is it. Hinson's deep, texan croon sits perfectly on top of sparse acoustic arrangements with the occasional orchestral flourish and burst of electric guitar. Needless to say, it is a fine album.

'We Won't Have to be Lonesome', the second single from it, is one of the more traditional sounding country songs on the record and given Hinson's trials and tribulations over the years, it is lovely to hear him singing a simple love song. Micah proposed to his girlfriend at a Union Chapel gig (attended by TracksandGigs) last Christmas, they are now married and this warm (sorry, i was trying to only use that word once in this review) guitar and organ led ballad pretty much tells the story. It soulds like a standard.

B Side 'You Ain't Calling The Shots' is spikier but equally good.

Hinson's music, intimate and lo-fi as it is, sounds better on vinyl so you should definitely be buying this on 7" vinyl, out on Monday 22nd, and available to pre-order from Norman Records and Piccadilly Records, TracksandGigs' recommended vendors.

Hinson tours the UK with Retribution Gospel Choir supporting (or thats the plan anyway) in November.

tindersticks at brighton- setlist

for those of you who love setlists....here's tindersticks set at Brighton t'other night...

introduction
yesterday's tomorrows
flicker of a little girl
come feel the sun
e type
other side of the world
drunk tank
dying slowly
16 summers, 15 falls (townes van zandt cover)
say goodbye to the city
she's gone
sleepy song
the hungry saw
mother dear
boobar
the turns we took

her
my sister
the not knowing

Tindersticks at Brighton St George's Hall

Since the release of 'The Hungry Saw' in April, Tindersticks have played a small amount of live dates and festival appearances, including the Royal Festival Hall gig in May which was enthusiastically reviewed here. From now until the end of the year, they will tour as seven-piece, allowing them more diversity in setlists.

After an assured support set from Sara Lowes, they began their set at this beautiful church in Brighton with the first six songs from 'The Hungry Saw'. Stuart Staples and co immediately seemed very relaxed and at ease and the set flowed beautifully from the acoustic jangle of 'Flicker Of A Little Girl', through the brass-led powerful instrumental 'E-Type' to the superb ballad 'Other Side Of The World'. 

Mid-set the band played a succession of older songs including some surprises. 'Drunk Tank' from Tindersticks 1 had not been played for some time but was perfectly suited to this stripped down line up, with the brass and David Boulter's superb keyboards to the fore, '16 Summers, 15 Falls' a Townes Van Zandt cover which Staples had previously played solo was another surprise, while 'Say Goodbye To The City', a pocket symphony from 'Waiting For the Moon' was stunning, Staples completely losing himself in the song at the finale.

The main set ended with the magnificent sequence of songs from the end of 'The Hungry Saw', minus 'All The Love'. 'Mother Dear' was a highlight, Staples stalking the stage while Neil Fraser performed his memorable and unique solo. It is a haunting song, one of their most beautiful pieces of music to date. 'Turns We Took' ended the set on a high and the band left the stage to a long standing ovation.

They couldn't really go wrong with the encores. 'My Sister' was as wonderful as ever but finishing with 'The Not Knowing', which had not been played for several years was a masterstroke.

If you saw Tindersticks earlier in the year, you knew you were going to get an assured set and a mix of old and new material. Now, the band are able to experiment more with their setlists and this gig saw them looking happier on stage than I can ever recall seeing them. This was a wonderful gig and I never wanted it to end.