Tindersticks
The Hungry Saw
Beggar’s Banquet Records

‘The Hungry Saw’, Tindersticks’ 7th album, was recorded in a home studio in France, where lead singer Stuart Staples now lives, because he felt ‘hemmed-in’ in London. It shows. The record aims for Scott Walker darkness and melancholia but instead, gets stuck in mid-life crisis territory. Where Stuart Staples’ baritone was once laconic and knowing, it now sounds like a morose bachelor uncle at a family Christmas party.

Melodically, and lyrically, ‘The Hungry Saw’ covers well-trodden ground. Ostensibly a song about the loss of innocence, and containing po-faced lyrics that speak of a ‘regression into the womb to find nothing at all’, ‘Boobar Come Back to Me’ is the height of self-indulgence. Meanwhile, ‘The Flicker of a Little Girl’ nods its head to the melody from Echo and the Bunnymen’s ‘Bring on the Dancing Horses’. End track ‘The Turns We Took’ briefly reverts to Tindersticks’ earlier, more experimental ‘My Sister’ years, but unfortunately veers back to the middle-aged plod of the rest of the album all too quickly.

The instrumentation saves the album however, thanks to strings arranger Lucy Wilkins. The pedal notes, creeping bass and tinkly upper-register pianos are reminiscent of Nick Cave’s soundtrack work- especially on the opening track ‘Introduction’ and ‘On the Other Side of the World’. The swooping violins on the final track and the Mc Garrigle Sisters-esque haunting backing vocals on ‘All the Love’ give the listener hope that Tindersticks haven’t lost their talent, they’ve just mislaid it.

Ailbhe Malone is 21 years old. She continually gets Malcolm McClaren and Steve McClaren mixed up.
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