Stuart A. Staples - That Leaving Feeling (Beggars Banquet)
UK release date: 15 May 2006
The former Tindersticks vocalist has one of the most recognisable voices in the whole of the indie music scene. It's a voice like Marmite, it's rich, deep and you either love or hate it. To the vast majority of people he may sound like a drunken pub singer down on his luck. To me it sounds romantic and wasted, full of whiskey stains and blue cigarette smoke. On That Leaving Feeling his dark tones are contrasted with the ice white voice of Lhasa de Sela. It's the perfect blend of light and shade, sorrow and hope, beauty and pain.
These two songs are a progression from Staples debut LP Lucky Dog Recordings. The songs on his debut were recorded in his bedroom studio and the Tindersticks lush sound was pared down to its core elements. There were guitars, sparse pianos and that lugubrious voice. Yet the strings and brass that gave The Tindersticks their intensity was missing. On That Leaving Feeling the strings make a glorious return, swooshing up behind the fragile acoustic guitars and rumbling drums. They add a tender emotional punch to the music as Staples voice always sounds alive when pitched against aching violins and cellos.
B-side There Is A Path is the kind of beautiful restrained song that Staples' former band managed so well, all reserved string plucks, and red wine melancholy. This may not stray too far from the musical landscape of his former incarnation - well, that is fine by me. So if you need a shot of faded romance in your life then look no further.
more