Falling Down a Mountain

by Tindersticks

Overview

After eighteen years, they still soldier on... After a somewhat revised version of Tindersticks broke their five-year recording silence with 2008's The Hungry Saw, it took less than two years for the group (again with a few modifications to the lineup) to compound that successful return with another new album -- their eighth overall -- which stands as perhaps even more of an achievement and pleasant surprise than its very fine predecessor. While Saw offered a few rare glimmers of positivity and sweetness from Stuart Staples and company, it was essentially business as usual for the perennially moody Britons. Falling Down a Mountain isn't exactly a major reinvention, either, but it does back up the golden-hued sky gracing its cover with some of their most upbeat and optimistic songs to date (keep in mind those are relative terms), and a liberal extension of the looseness they've been gradually settling into since 1999's Simple Pleasure. The six-and-a-half minute title track is immediately striking, with its simmering, asymmetrical, jazzy groove buoying a hypnotically simple vocal riff and some uninhibited soloing from trumpeter Terry Edwards. "Harmony Around My Table" is a bouncy soul-pop number that might hardly be recognizable as Tindersticks if not for Staples' inimitable quavering baritone (as always, an acquired taste, like fine wine), while the low-key lovers' duet "Peanuts" sports a charmingly simple, slightly silly lyric, and the twinkling ballad "Keep You Beautiful," though a typically mellow affair, is uncharacteristically, almost achingly sweet. Elsewhere, the album takes on a vaguely Western tinge (again echoing the dusty cover landscape), with the galloping, lustful "She Rode Me Down," Edwards' lonesome fluegelhorn on the Morricone-esque instrumental "Hubbard Hills," and the gritty, downright driving "Black Smoke." Eventually -- this being Tindersticks, after all -- the darkness does creep in: the deceptively buoyant "No Place So Alone" seethes with the jealousy of a jilted lover, and by the penultimate "Factory Girls," we find Staples brooding alone, doused in melancholy, feebly asserting that "it's the wine that makes me sad, not the love I never had." It's a typically mournful, typically lovely Tindersticks moment, made all the more exquisite here in contrast to the increased stylistic range that came before it. Sometimes, it just takes a slight change in scenery to help you appreciate what you've always had. ~ K. Ross Hoffman

Product Details

Release Date:	02/16/2010
Label:	CONSTELLATION
UPC:	0666561006525

Tracks

1. Falling Down a Mountain
2. Keep You Beautiful
3. Harmony Around My Table
4. Peanuts
5. She Rode Me Down
6. Hubbards Hills
7. Black Smoke
8. No Place so Alone
9. Factory Girls
10. Piano Music

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Tindersticks   Primary Artist
Earl Harvin   Vocals,Drums
Terry Edwards   Flugelhorn,Trumpet,Saxophone,Flugelhorn,Trumpet,Saxophone
David Kitt   Guitar,Vocals
Neil Fraser   E-Bow,Guitar
Mary Margaret O'Hara   Vocals
Dave Boulter   Organ,Piano,Triangle,Harmonium,Percussion,Tambourine,Vibraphone,Phillycorda
Louisson Renault   Cymbals,Timpani,Xylophone
Stuart Staples   Guitar,Vocals,Melodica
Dan McKinna   Bass,Guitar,Vocals
Joanne Fraser   Flute
Jeannot Gillis   Violin
Stephane Collin   Conductor,String Conductor
Christophe Chatelle   Violin
Igor Semenoff   Violin
Cristina Constantinescu   Violin
Antoine Maisonhaute   Violin
Jeanne Maisonhaute   Cello
Sigrid Vandenboogaerde   Cello
Late Lee   Violin
Michael Bonnay   Violin
Isabelle Decraene   Violin
David Boulter   Lowry,Piano,Triangle,Harmonium,Percussion,Tambourine,Vibraphone
Andy Nice   Cello,Sax (Tenor)

Technical Credits

Neil Fraser   Photography
Erwin Autrique   Engineer
Jeff McMurrich   Engineer
Stuart Staples   Composer,Producer
Dan McKinna   Composer
Suzanne Osborne   Paintings
Stephane Collin   String Arrangements
Tim Young   Mastering