(Alternative/Indie Rock, Chamber Pop) [CD] Tindersticks - No Treasure but Hope - 2019, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

#77701. For the Beauty (Stuart A. Staples / Dan McKinna) 04:46
02. The Amputees (Stuart A. Staples / Dan McKinna) 03:27
03. Trees Fall (Stuart A. Staples) 05:04
04. Pinky in the Daylight (Stuart A. Staples) 05:22
05. Carousel (Stuart A. Staples) 04:39
06. Take Care in Your Dreams (Stuart Staples / David Boulter / Neil Fraser / Dan McKinna) 03:57
07. See My Girls (Stuart A. Staples) 05:28
08. The Old Mans Gait (Stuart A. Staples / David Coulter) 04:43
09. Tough Love (Stuart A. Staples / David Boulter) 04:57
10. No Treasure but Hope (Stuart A. Staples) 03:51

#777Recorded in the week of 29th April 2019 by Sam Navel at Midilive, Paris
Assisted by Hugo Brachi and Philippe Coisne
Strings and brass recorded on 9th May, 2019 by George Murphy at RAK, London
Assisted by Connor Panayi
The bouzouki and sax were recorded on the 10th May, 2019 at Eastcote, London
Mixed by Stuart A. Staples and Côme Jalibert at Le Chien Chanceux
Mastered by Jason Mitchell at LOUD
Vinyl cut by Graham Durham
Field recording by Côme Jalibert
Artwork by Stuart and Suzanne
Layout by Ian Youngs

Tindersticks were one of the most original and distinctive British acts of the ’90s, standing apart from both the British indie scene and the rash of Brit-pop guitar combos that dominated the U.K. charts. Where their contemporaries were often direct and to the point, Tindersticks were obtuse and leisurely, crafting dense, difficult songs layered with literary lyrics, intertwining melodies, mumbling vocals, and gently melancholy orchestrations. Essentially, the group filtered the dark romanticism of Leonard Cohen, Ian Curtis, and Scott Walker through the bizarre pop songcraft of Lee Hazlewood and the aesthetics of indie rock. Though their music was far from casual listening, Tindersticks gained a dedicated cult following in the mid-’90s, beginning with their eponymous 1993 debut album, which was named Album of the Year by Melody Maker. At their best—their 1993 and 1995 self-titled albums, 1997’s Curtains, 2001’s Can Our Love …, and 2012’s The Something Rain—Tindersticks crafted richly orchestrated, darkly beautiful music that often felt like soundtracks to imaginary movies. Not surprisingly, they would find themselves scoring motion pictures after their breakthrough, including several projects with director Claire Denis.
The origins of Tindersticks lay in Asphalt Ribbons, a Nottingham-based indie rock band that featured vocalist Stuart Staples, keyboardist David Boulter, and violinist Dickon Hinchcliffe. All three members formed Tindersticks in 1992; the remaining members included guitarist Neil Fraser, bassist Mark Colwill, and drummer Al Macaulay. In November of 1992, the band released its first single, “Patchwork,” on its own label, Tippy Toe. “Marbles” followed early in 1993, as did “A Marriage Made in Heaven,” a collaboration with Huggy Bear’s Niki Sin that appeared on Rough Trade’s Singles Club. Following the release of the Unwired EP on Tippy Toe, the fledgling This Way Up signed the band.
Tindersticks’ eponymous debut appeared halfway through 1993, earning rave reviews from most sections of the British press. By the end of the year, the group and the album had won over most of the U.K. critics, and Tindersticks was named Album of the Year by Melody Maker. Tindersticks spent a quiet year in 1994, releasing a single of John Barry’s James Bond theme “We Have All the Time in the World” (from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service), a live album entitled Amsterdam, and a cover of Pavement’s “Here.” Also that year, Tindersticks was released on Bar/None in the U.S. In the spring of 1995, the group released its untitled second album, which featured cameos from Gallon Drunk’s Terry Edwards and the Walkabouts’ Carla Torgerson. Like its predecessor, it received rave reviews and appeared on nearly every British Top Ten list of the Best of 1995. In November of 1995, the group released another live album, Bloomsbury Theatre.
Tindersticks were quiet for most of 1996, releasing the soundtrack to the Claire Denis film Nénette et Boni in the fall of the year. The album was comprised of old songs, new songs, and rearranged older material. A new version of “A Marriage Made in Heaven,” featuring vocals from actress Isabella Rossellini, was released a few months after Nénette et Boni; the single was later appended to the American release of 1997’s Curtains. Their fourth effort, Simple Pleasure (1999), marked Tindersticks’ most open-hearted release since their inception. A new deal with Beggars Banquet surfaced at the dawn of the new millennium, and a replenished unity within the band was found on 2001’s Can Our Love. . .. Later that year, the band provided the soundtrack to another Claire Denis film, Trouble Every Day. The proper follow-up to Can Our Love. . ., Waiting for the Moon, was released in mid-2003.
In 2005, Staples embarked on a solo project (fueling rumors of a split) and went on to produce two albums. The rumors proved to be partially true as Hinchcliffe, Colwill, and drummer Macaulay left the group in 2006. The remaining Tindersticks (Staples, Fraser, and Boulter) were joined by longtime associate Terry Edwards and a host of musicians in their return to the studio in 2007. The resulting album, The Hungry Saw, was released in 2008, followed two years later by Falling Down a Mountain. The latter album introduced another revised lineup, this one featuring Earl Harvin on drums and David Kitt on guitar. Tindersticks’ long collaboration with Claire Denis, in film and television, was compiled by Constellation into a limited-edition five-CD (or five-LP) package entitled The Claire Denis Film Scores 1996-2009, which was released in April of 2011. The band planned to tour the material in the U.K. in the fall of that year.
Recorded between May 2010 and August 2011, Tindersticks’ ninth studio album featured, appropriately, nine brand-new cuts, including the hypnotic first single, “Medicine.” The Something Rain was released on February 21, 2012. The band released its latest collaboration with Denis, the soundtrack for Les Salauds (The Bastards), in the fall of 2013, following the film’s release. In October, Tindersticks released Across Six Leap Years, in celebration of their 21st anniversary. The set contained new recordings of tracks from their back catalog.
In 2011 the band was commissioned by the In Flanders Field World War One Museum in Ypres, Belgium, to provide a soundscape for the permanent exhibition planned to commemorate the centenary of the Great War. The soundtrack, which plays continuously during the museum’s open hours, was released as the album Ypres in October of 2014.
Tindersticks grew more visually ambitious with The Waiting Room. The set not only featured new material, but each song was accompanied by a different short film. Some of the directors included Claire Denis, Rose Pedlow, Joe King, Christoph Girardet, and Gabriel Sanna. The set’s first single, “Hey Lucinda,” offered a duet between Staples and the late songwriter Lhasa de Sela, who passed away in 2010. The Waiting Room was released on January 22, 2016. A year later, they returned with yet another film-centric project, Minute Bodies: The Intimate World of F. Percy Smith. A tribute to pioneering naturalist and documentarian F. Percy Smith, the project found Staples scoring music for an edit of Smith’s original footage to create an immersive film experience. Along with Tindersticks, the soundtrack featured contributions from percussionist Thomas Belhom, pianist Christine Ott, saxophonist Julian Siegel, and multi-instrumentalist David Coulter. For 2019’s No Treasure but Hope, the group aimed for a more organic sound than their previous few releases, with the tracks recorded in a mere five days. Following the release of the album, the group launched an extensive international tour, which included their first appearances in North America in ten years. (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic)

There are few if any working bands who craft their music as meticulously as Tindersticks; their music is like a suspension bridge built out of nuance, a wealth of small details coming together into something tremendously powerful even when it’s whisper quiet (which is often). So it’s surprising to learn that the group’s 2019 album No Treasure but Hope was recorded in less than a week. Rather than creating an elaborately constructed piece in the studio and then figuring out how to play it on-stage, in this case they opted to establish the framework of their compositions first, and then played them live in the studio for a more natural, organic feel. But if anyone was expecting No Treasure but Hope to sound rougher or less precise given the way it was recorded, they’d be wrong. The craft these performers bring to this music is as stunning as ever, and the interplay between the musicians is wondrous, made all the more remarkable by the deeply affecting murmur of Stuart Staples’ vocals. As one might expect from Tindersticks, No Treasure but Hope often feels dour and somewhat overcast, despite the strength of the tunes and the abilities of the instrumentalists. This has never been a group given to upbeat themes, but there’s an all too real passion in “Pinky in the Daylight” and a wary encouragement in “Take Care in Your Dreams” to remind us Tindersticks aren’t pessimists for its own sake, they’re romantics who’ve been disappointed by the world but still believe in life’s possibilities. There’s really no one else who does exactly what Tindersticks can, and No Treasure but Hope confirms they can not only create music of striking and forbidding beauty, they can do it in a hurry if need be. (Mark Deming, AllMusic)

CONTRIBUTORS:
David Boulter: vibraphone, organ, and piano (tracks 7 and 9)
Neil Fraser: electric guitar
Earl Harvin: percussion, backing vocals
Dan McKinna: double bass, piano (tracks 1, 4, 5, and 10), backing vocals
Stuart A. Staples: vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar (tracks 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8)
Introducing Stanley Staples: acoustic rhythm guitar (tracks 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9)
Lucy Wilkins: violin
Natalia Bonner: violin
Rick Koster: violin
Kate Robinson: violin
Calina de la Mare: violin
Howard Gott: violin
Alison Dods: violin
Laura Melhuish: violin
Rob Spriggs: viola
Rachel Robson: viola
Sophie Sirota: viola
Sarah Wilson: cello
Andy Nice: cello
Matt Gunner: horn
Richard Steggull: horn
Tom Rumsby: horn
Dan McKinna: string and horn arrangements
Adam Goldsmith: bouzouki (track 4)
Terry Edwards: saxophone (track 9)
Produced by Stuart A. Staples