The Waiting Room might be Tindersticks’ most subdued effort to date, but it still flashes the irreverence that enlivened efforts like The Something Rain and Falling Down a Mountain.
There is a simple, traditional pleasure in its earthy, untampered warmth – it is an album to be ingested in one sitting; the kind of immersive, intricately produced music designed to be listened to on some extravagantly priced, high-quality audio player.
Now in their third decade the song remains the same, but on The Waiting Room Tindersticks still sound so out of time that ironically their music feels neither dated nor futuristic, it just is. And that’s exactly how it should be.
The Waiting Room is Tindersticks on ravishing form. For die-hards and newcomers alike, it's hard not to be drawn in by the lush facade it creates.
Clocking in at just under fifty minutes, this is the most cohesive and engaging set the band has created. The lessons of their cinematic compositions have served the band well.
The Waiting Room is another immensely satisfying collection from a band always able – even after personnel upheavals – to explore multiple styles while remaining ineffably themselves.
This is a rich, warm, comfort blanket of a record, marbled with veins of darkness and light.
The Waiting Room is organized around subtle cues, including a trio of minimalist instrumentals that draw a direct parallel to Tindersticks' distinctive soundtrack work.
While The Waiting Room is a mixed bag, it's far more relaxed and sure of itself than Across Six More Leap Years was.
It's hard to find a band more moving at exploring longing, loss, and despair than Tindersticks, and The Waiting Room is such a vehicle.
That this is the sleepiest album of their career is impossible to deny; every song here carries the air of time winding down, whether it's last orders at the jazz bar or the final dance of the night in God's very own waiting room.
This would make for a terrible sales pitch for any band other than the Tindersticks, but in their capable world-worn hands there's never any doubt they'll succeed in delivering that familiar welcome hit of subtle sad-sacks song craft.
While 'The Waiting Room' ... read more
That this is the sleepiest album of their career is impossible to deny; every song here carries the air of time winding down, whether it's last orders at the jazz bar or the final dance of the night in God's very own waiting room.
This would make for a terrible sales pitch for any band other than the Tindersticks, but in their capable world-worn hands there's never any doubt they'll succeed in delivering that familiar welcome hit of subtle sad-sacks song craft.
While 'The Waiting Room' ... read more
1 | Follow Me 2:45 | |
2 | Second Chance Man 3:56 | |
3 | Were We Once Lovers? 4:49 | |
4 | Help Yourself 5:38 | |
5 | Hey Lucinda 5:16 feat. Lhasa De Sela | |
6 | This Fear of Emptiness 3:59 | |
7 | How He Entered 4:46 | |
8 | The Waiting Room 4:54 | |
9 | Planting Holes 2:02 | |
10 | We Are Dreamers! 5:20 feat. Jehnny Beth | |
11 | Like Only Lovers Can 4:32 | 100 |
#13 | / | Rough Trade |
#65 | / | Fopp |