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Eerste solo plaat van de frontman van de Tindersticks.

Stuart A. Staples - Lucky Dog Recordings 03-04
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01 - Somerset House
02 - Marseilles Sunshine
03 - Say Something Now
04 - Friday Night
05 - Shame On You
06 - Untitled
07 - Dark Days
08 - People Fall Down
09 - She Don't Have To Be Good To Me
10 - I've Come A Long Way


Review : It was always just goning to be a matter of time before Tindersticks front man, Stuart Staples released his own solo material. Several other band members have already done their own thing and Staples was always such a unique figure, possessing such a talent, it seemed obvious that he would break free and do his own project at some point. Staples voice was such a strong driving force behind the band that at first listen, there isn’t too much of a departure between this album and Tindersticks albums. But there are differences. This is staples on his own, focussing on his main talent, his voice. The Tinderstick’s characteristic orchestrated big, rich, theatrical sound is gone, and what we are left with is Staples voice. The absence of the big accompaniment makes his voice sound more intense, more honest, and laiden with emotion. One of the most attractive things about the Tindersticks music was the honesty of it. The love songs that were about love as it really is. Not the roses and kisses and romance, but love in all it’s ickiness, dirtiness, awkwardness. And here, robbed of the juxtaposing musical beauty, it becomes more icky, more dirty, more desperate, and in a way, more wonderful.

The album opens in a similar way to the Tindersticks album ‘Waiting For The Moon’, with Staples teasing us. You turn on the CD and wait for Staples honey coated voice to begin, and instead you get a mainly instrumental track with a female voice doing ad-libbed vocal harmonies towards the end. So you have to wait until Marseille Sunhine before you hear his glorious voice and it’s worth the wait. Marseille Sunshine is a very Tindersticks-esque track which starts very stark and bare and builds into something rich and beautiful. ‘Say Something Now’ is possibly the best song on the album, and is a track which will probably make you want to dance by the end of it, which is pretty strange for a Stuart Staples song. ‘Dark Days’ provides the album with a magical moment. Just Staples voice with the gentlest of acoustic guitar accompaniments, it is a million miles away from the luscious orchestration of the likes of tiny tears, but it is just a sad, gorgeous and beautiful It’s totally different to anything the Tindersticks have ever done; his voice even sounds different; frail, breakable, vulnerable, vicarious.

As the title suggest, this is more of a work in progress than an actual artistic album. It is made up of 10 individual songs recorded over a two year period, but that is not to say that it is devoid of poetry. It’s sometimes nice to witness something in progress, something that hasn’t been smoothed and polished down. This is an album of raw emotion, it is rough around the edges, and somehow leaves you with an uneasy feeling, but that is exactly what the music of Stuart Staples is all about and that is exactly why we love him so.