Culmnating in a triumphant night at the Royal Albert Hall, TINDERSTICKS' busy year of touring was built around their fifth consistently strong album,"CAN OUR LOVE...", the long-awaited follow-up to 1999's gently soul-stirring "SIMPLE PLEASURE."
This time around the soul and funk influences were pushed even further forward, with insistent groovers like "People Keep Coming Around" and the perfectly-shimmering "Sweet Release" rubbing shoulders with more traditional, string-drenched 'Sticks material like the anguished opener "Dying Slowly". Singer Stuart Staples even went for a (quite succesful actually) spoken intro over the delicate,aching intro of "No Man In The World" and pulled it off, while ever-tasteful keyboard Dave Boulter even tussled with the ultimate funky accessory, a clavinet, on a couple of occasions.
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Not that you're liable to catch TINDERSTICKS scoring "KOJAK" re-runs or anything, but "CAN OUR LOVE.." notches up another notable album success by this ever-emotional outfit and continues to breathe new life into their gorgeous orchestral blueprint. A second soundtrack LP ("Trouble Everyday") followed in its' footsteps and while - barring the great title-track - it was more a question of mood pieces than songs, Nottingham's finest have again proved conclusively that no-one does romantic, no-hole-barred melancholy remotely as effectively. Long may their tear at our heartstrings.
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