Tindersticks have announced a new album entitled Distractions, which is set to be released on February 19th via City Slang. Along with the announcement, they have shared a new single, “Man alone (can’t stop the fadin’)”.
Tindersticks’ Stuart A. Staples comments on the track saying: “This song was always a journey but I wasn’t expecting it to be such a long one. We made a 6 minute version but it felt like it pulled off and stopped half way to its destination. This was the beginning of a long journey in itself, to find the route needed to complete it – probably the biggest challenge a song or piece of music has given us. It was delicate and slippery right up to the final mix, which lasted a week! For me the song has a strange connection to the drum machine, bass guitar and voice combination of ‘Indignant Desert Birds’ – mine and Neils first band when I was 17. It was important to me that the words of the song were not a coherent narrative, but passing thoughts along the way.”
Speaking about the accompanying video he continues: “In the back of a London cab driving through the city at night is a very special space for me. It has a particular kind of aloneness. This fascination grew over hundreds of nights leaving the the studio exhausted at 1am – Ladbroke Grove or St Johns Wood, through the city and over the river to South East London in an almost dream state. Retracing that journey, this film became a way of touching the city and the feeling of being both a part of and apart from it.”
Listen to & watch “Man alone (can’t stop the fadin’)” below:
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.”
Distractions artwork & tracklist:
1. Man alone (can’t stop the fadin’)
2. I imagine you
3. A man needs a maid (Neil Young cover)
4. Lady with the braid (Dory Previn cover)
5. You’ll have to scream louder (Television Personalities cover)
6. Tue-moi
7. The bough bends