Tindersticks - Can Our Love...

Beggars Banquet - 2001 - 45 minutes

Having rediscovered their groove so spectacularly with the Stax-flavoured shuffle of 1999's 'Simple Pleasure', Tindersticks return with their fifth instalment of love on the never-never.

Like its predecessor, it boasts a compact running time and snug horn section, but whereas vocalist Stuart Staples sounded like a man saved on 'Simple.', 'Can Our Love...' finds him haunted by wrong turns on his lonely road. "I've been with everyone and no-one," he wails on opener 'Dying Slowly', a statement which sets you up for the sad soaked introspection of what's to come.

It's emotions on a dimmer switch as the sextet move from the city paranoia of 'People Keep Comin' Around' to the end-of-the-line romance of the epic 'No Man In The World', always sounding as if they've half-emptied every glass in the bar. First thing in the morning, last thing at night, the perfect bedfellows.

Harry Guerin

Tracklisting: Dying Slowly - People Keep Comin' Around - Tricklin' - Can Our Love...- Sweet Release - Don't Ever Get Tired - No Man In The World - Chilitetime