19 Feb Tindersticks have just released their new album, ‘Distractions’
Before the end of their 2020 No Treasure but Hope tour, Tindersticks already had a new kind of album in mind, one that would allow them to explore new sonic possibilities. Hence Distractions, the Nottingham band’s 13th album, was born. It is released today by City Slang Records.
Distractions is an album of renewal and “Man Alone”, the first track of the album, is its highest moment: an eleven-minute journey through the streets of London, under the influence of drum machines and hypnotizing bass lines that melt with Stuart Staples’ narcotic voice uttering the mantras “No, I’m not greedy for the sky no more” and “Can’t stop the fadin”. “Man Alone” paints a restless band in a search for themselves.
Distractions was created during the Covid-19 pandemic. For this reason, the recording process had its difficulties. “Recording remotely doesn’t work for us” says Staples “but we found a way and in July the album was drafted and mixed in September.” The confinement “is definitely a part of the album, but the album is not a reaction to it (…)”
The album consists of four originals and three covers: A Man Needs a Maid by Neil Young, You’ll Have To Scream Louder by Television Personalities and Lady With the Braid by Dory Previn, a song Staples discovered in school through an unlikely recommendation by an English teacher who knew of his love for Joy Division.
Tindersticks performed in Portugal in 2020, touring through Coimbra, Faro, Leiria, Lisbon, and Porto, as part of the No Treasure But Hope (2019) tour, a Locomotiva Azul and Produtores Associados co-production.
TINDERSTICKS – DISTRACTIONS
1. Man alone (can’t stop the fadin’)
2. I imagine you
3. A man needs a maid (Neil Young cover)
4. Lady with the braid (Dory Previn cover)
5. You’ll have to scream louder (Television Personalities cover)
6. Tue-moi
7. The bough bends
Stream Distractions: tindersticks.lnk.to/distractions