Distractions

Tindersticks are a band whose music is defined by a mood as much as a style, and if anyone is looking for proof to that theory, 2021s Distractions will do nicely. The lush, expansively orchestrated sound of 2019s No Treasure but Hope was a stellar example of prime Tindersticks, a sprawling canvas composed from an infinity of small details. Distractions, on the other hand, is nearly as powerful while sounding atypically spare, created from what for this group is the bare minimum of elements but still achieving the cool, majestic tone of their most famous work. Tindersticks leader Stuart Staples has said Distractions isnt a lockdown album, but that the isolation imposed on its production by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 reinforced a creative choice that was already in place, and this music clearly took creative advantage of the limits that outside circumstances imposed on the musicians. While a string quartet appears on two tracks, much of Distractions was crafted from simple guitar and keyboard figures, drum machines, and loops, with a vocal sample of Staples providing the framework of the opening track, Man Alone (Cant Stop the Fadin). The gentle strength of Staples deep, whispery vocals takes up even more space than usual on these sessions, and on many tracks, it has little more than elemental guitar and keyboard lines to accompany it. As it happens, thats enough. The mournful, searching tone of the melodies is well served by the stripped-down arrangements and no-frills production, and if Staples and his cohorts were striving to set a dark night of the soul to music, they could scarcely have done better than this. Three of the seven tracks are covers, and though Staples and bandmate Dan McKinna didnt write them, Neil Youngs A Man Needs a Maid, Dory Previns Lady with the Braid, and Television Personalities Youll Have to Scream Louder fit this album perfectly, ideal for this deep contemplation of the void. Distractions isnt an album filled with hope, but the search for the comfort and grace it brings is never far from center stage and brings its own sort of warmth to the mix. Its a powerful, evocative work that speaks to the time that created it as well as the continued creative growth of a unique and gifted group of artists. ~ Mark Deming