Product Description

String and brass arrangements appear throughout 'Can Our Love...' by the Nottingham indie band Tindersticks. Stuart Staples' vocals lie somewhere between Nick Cave and Lou Reed onthis album. It is their first for the Beggar's Banquet label.

Track Listing

1. Dying Slowly
2. People Keep Comin' Around
3. Tricklin'
4. Can Our Love
5. Sweet Release
6. Don't Ever Get Tired
7. No Man In The World
8. Chilitetime

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17930 in Music
• Released on: 2001-05-21
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Uniquely among bands with even a tangential connection to pop, the passage of time and the number of records of theirs you may already own are pretty much irrelevant when sizing up the appeal of Can Our Love..., the fifth album from the decade-old Tindersticks. Partly, it's because this lot, who seem to have sprung fully-formed from the concentrated essence of French art house film, also appear to have spent their youths waiting for middle age to arrive. Mostly though, it's because the unswerving continuity of their work--chiefly remarkable for single-digit BPMs, a bone-dry, Eeyore-ish sense of humour (doubtless not unconnected to their fascination with donkeys) and a luxuriant air of weltschmertz, tristesse, saudade and any other foreign words which cover the black-and-white waterfront of romantic desolation where string sections, shabby-sharp suits and Gauloises are de rigueur--suggests that each Tindersticks album is merely a small corner of a canvas the size of, well, life and love and loss. Once again then you get what you came to swoon for. The dusty Hazlewood-esque intro prefacing Stuart Staples' forlorn, chocolaty mumbles ("dying slowly seems better than shooting myself"). "Don't Ever Get Tired", aching with hope and tender-heartedness. The interwoven vocal lines of "Chilitetime"; the intimate, Cohen-esque voiceover of "No Man In The World". And we get a little bit more, too: namely the suspicion, on hearing the Hammond-shivering, Bobby Womack-drifting-through-molasses seduction of "People Keep Comin' Around" and "Sweet Release", that if Tindersticks have shifted position at all, it's in a slow, elegant sidle toward the spot marked "England's greatest soul band". --Jennifer Nine

Customer Reviews

Music To Boil Water To
Tindersticks are not for everybody. The music they swirl is most certainly melancholy, but not at all depressing. Lead singer, Stuart Staples has the most quivering, fragile, mumbling, vibrating baritone you are ever likely to hear. His voice sounds like it is about to crack at any moment and that sound, even though it will be beautiful, will break your heart. And it will sink right into the music, which sounds a lot like something Burt Bacharach might come up with, if he were less distant.

I remember getting into the Tindersticks years ago, back in 1994, when there was a lull in Nick Cave releases, and Stuart Staples was a common antidote for such occasions (back before we had a more subdued Nick Cave). And I remember liking them, but eventually getting tired of them. This album, Can Our Love... changes those determinations. It is clear that both the Tindersticks and myself have matured enough over the resulting seven years.

I think it's really a perfect album. It's the kind you can play on a rainy day, and cook pasta so that the windows steam up, and let it play over and over. Every now and then, repeat songs #4 and #8 (Can Our Love... and Chilitetime) because they are worth repeating.

Infuriating game of two halves
Rather a false-start to this gorgeous album with the Tindersticks-by-numbers of 'Dying Slowly' and the sketchy time-filler 'Tricklin'. The heart of the album however takes us to True Soul the like of which no other band seems to have the heart and ambition to attempt these days. In 'Sweet Release' they have crafted the most breathlessly wonderful song you've heard this millennium, and as another reviewer has opined, is alone worth the price of admission.

Can our love be as perfect as this music!
To me this brilliant masterly production surpasses that of the previous release 'Simple pleasure' and takes one back to their second album masterpiece 'Tindersticks 2'. While the mood and ambience remains distinctly Tindersticks, there is more passion here, and even moments that tend to explore different territory.

Its similarity to 'Simple pleasure' is in its relatively short length (just over 45 minutes), and the substance of its mood and lyric. Both are compositions of carefully arranged gems that tell the story of relationships and dilemmas of everyday life.

'Can our love...' be as perfect as this music? Almost worth buying for the cover alone. An absolute must for any Tinderenthusiast!