Tindersticks - Distractions

Just before the end of the year 2020, a mere 12 months, after the release of their celebrated record No Treasure But Hope, Tindersticks surprised everyone with mentioning a new album to be released in 2021. Stuart Staples was already nurturing seeds for a different kind of Tindersticks album before lockdown halted their tour in early 2020. If 2019's No Treasure But Hope saw the band rediscovering themselves as a unit, the follow-up reconfigures that unit so that everything familiar about Tindersticks sounds fresh again. Distractions is an album of subtle realignments and connections from a restless, intuitive band: rich in texture and atmosphere, it lives between it's open spaces and details, always finding new ways to connect with a song. If it's an album that resists easy summation, at least one thing is clear: though it isn't untouched by the lockdown, Distractions is not 'a lockdown album'. As Staples says, I think the confinement provided an opportunity for something that was already happening. It is definitely a part of the album, but not a reaction to it.