Tindersticks and their masterpiece “Tindersticks II”: Sad Beauty

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The Tindersticks’ debut album was a sensation in 1993, then there was the wonderful single featuring Townes Van Zandt’s “Kathleen” – and in 1995 this monumental LP: Stuart Staples mumbles and revels in fur-lined opulence, the strings embedding the etudes in the warmth of a vintage-furnished setting crowded boudoirs, and the songs – sometimes just sketches, just instrumentals – exude melancholy, weariness and regret.

In the gas-lit world of Tindersticks, it’s always a little after Oscar Wilde, and “A Night In,” “Tiny Tears,” “No More Affairs,” and “Mistakes” are the biggest tearjerkers of the era. “Tiny Tears” was heard much later in a sad “Sopranos” episode.

“Travelling Light” sings Staples as Hazlewood & Sinatra with the Walkabouts’ Carla Torgerson, “My Sister” is a melody-led recitative of chilling beauty, and “Sleepy Song” ends it all in an orchestral awakening.

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