Tindersticks Album: “Curtains”

In my opinion, Curtains stands tall as the overall best CD issued by Tindersticks to date. In my review of that CD, I gave it a high recommendation. However, if you don't mind spending a few dollars more, then I recommend that you get this re-mastered edition instead as the bonus CD is certainly worth the extra money. Not only that, the remastering has vastly improved the sound quality of the original.

The highlights on Disc 1 are Another Night In, Rented Rooms, Don't Look Down, Let's Pretend, Buried Bones, (Tonight) Are You Trying To Fall In Love Again?, and Bathtime. Stuart Staples is at his apex as a singer on Curtains and the lyrics reflect the dark, brooding and cynical worldview fans have come to expect of Tindersticks.

Disc 2's best features are a gritty rendition of Bathtime, a Lee Hazlewood-esqe tale of forbidden love in Shadow, a pair of excellent instrumentals with Paco's Theme and Mannlow, two excellent alternative versions of the jaded Rented Rooms (one of which really swings), Make Believe, the sexy duet A Marriage Made In Heaven, and the regretful For Those...In short, the entire disc is worthwhile.

If you are a serious Tindersticks fan, but on a tight budget, then you might want to buy this through one of amazon's partners. I got mine that way at roughly half the list price and was entirely pleased with the speed with which my order was filled. The remastered edition of Curtains finds Tindersticks at the pinnacle of perfection, so don't miss out on this!

Their first album was magnificent, but The Tindersticks have still managed to get better and better with every album since. Curtains is their third (not counting a collection of 'oddities' and a soundtrack), and is quite simply perfect. Every song is a masterpiece, perfectly hitting every emotion the band strives for. And for once these emotions are deep. Beautiful stuff. The only problem is that once you've heard this, the only other albums that seem half decent are other Tindersticks albums! PS I strongly urge you to also order the import of Tindersticks' new album, Simple Pleasure, which while containing one or two average tracks also features some of the best songs this tremendous band have ever done.

THIS ALBUM IS ABSOLUTELY A CLASSIC , NO DOUBT ONE OF THE BEST OF ALL TIME.WHEN I FIRST HEARD THIS ALBUM IT DID NOT HAD THAT HUGE EFFECT ON ME BUT I GAVE IT SOME MORE TIME AND THEN IT HAPPENED! I COULD NOT LISTEN TO OTHER ALBUMS BECAUSE THIS WAS THE ONE.HIS VOICE , THE STRINGS, THE BASSLINES AND MOOD. CURTAINS HAS THE POWER TO MAKE LAY IN BED ALL NIGHT AND JUST THINK OF THE ONE YOU LOVE BUT DONT REACH.

Curtains is easily the greatest and most consistent Tindersticks album and simply an amazing collection of songs that transcend genre and musical fashion. The burnished orchestration, Stuart Staples's world-weary baritone, the plangent lyrical evocations of languor and regret all conspire to make this the perfect accompaniment to several glasses of fine whiskey.

Wow! This is f**** good! The Tindersticks' 3rd full-lenght album is an amazing collection of beautiful songs that somehow follows the unmistakable way paved by the band's first couple of albums, but got naturally better than that. All the songs in this collection are shiny, beautiful, intense. Their fascination power comes from the fact that they are somehow weird but yet lovely compositions, sweet to your years, with carefully applied distortions (like Nick Cave's ''Rock Of Gibraltar''). ''Are You Trying to Fall In Love Again (Tonight)'' is the album's centerpiece, followed by single ''Bathtime'' and precious gem ''Rented Rooms''. ''Another Night in'' is the opener that anticipates the raw-and-delicate sophisticated sound of the group, and it's always a pleasure to listen to Stuart's low, expressive voice completing this scenario of meditative, early autumn melancholy.