MUSIC PREVIEW: Tindersticks reignite passion with new CD
If it were a debut album, 2008’s ``The Hungry Saw'' would be considered a major announcement: the hazy 3 a.m. ambience, the doleful, occasionally malevolent croon of the lead singer, the twisted romance of the lyrics, the haunting, jazzy arrangements – and the sense of foreboding that’s also strangely cathartic.
But this being Tindersticks – a pared down, and rejuvenated version of Tindersticks anyway – it’s par for the course. This is the band, after all, that holds every trump card there is for dark, noir-ish, lounge rock and the type of grave, yet soulful tones even career sad sacks like Leonard Cohen would admire.
The British group, which after its early ’90s debut grew a worldwide cult despite being largely ignored by the mainstream, arrives at the Somerville Theater on Saturday night – part of a brief U.S. tour that represents its first stateside dates in more than half a decade.
It’s taken just as long to release new material; Tindersticks’ last album, ``Waiting for the Moon,'' came out in 2003, after which the best-known, six-man version of the band went on hiatus.
Frontman Stuart Staples – he of the unnerving baritone – released two solo albums starting in 2005, and after the seemingly reunited full band performed one concert in London in 2006, told the Tindersticks faithful that half the group – former members Dickon Hinchcliffe, Alasdair Robert De Villeneuve Macaulay and Mark Colwill – had officially exited.
What remains is Staples on vocals, guitar and melodica, Neil Fraser on lead guitar and vibraphone, and David Boulter on keyboards and percussion, bolstered by drummer Thomas Belhorn and bassist Dan McKinna on ``The Hungry Saw.''
``When you’re in a band with six people for so long, people tend to fall into roles and you’re in your own little world,'' said Staples. ``You lose something without realizing it. During the making of the ‘The Hungry Saw,’ I had a moment where I looked around and realized everyone was involved, engaged, looking for something. It sounds kind of silly, but we were back to looking for something and having an open mind.''
Ironically for a band so down-sounding, refreshment is what comes across most on ``The Hungry Saw'' – Tindersticks’ strongest album since 1997’s ``Curtains'' and its mid-1990s debut releases, and featuring additional collaborators and instruments well into the double digits. The collection of moods and textures is mesmerizing throughout, from the despondent meditation on divorce ``All the Love'' and the fiddle-bolstered ``Feel the Sun'' to the odd and fanciful instrumental ``The Organist Entertains'' and the boozy, woozy ``Other Side of the World.''
``When recording ‘Waiting for the Moon,’ our sound became very considered and detailed,'' Staples said, ``and it took a real long time. With ‘The Hungry Saw’ it felt important to make something ‘of the moment’ – to trust in ideas and each other. It took eight days, and I think it catches a freshness, a spontaneity. It has edges, so to speak.''
``The Hungry Saw'' sessions were, Staples described, a ``battle of ideas.'' It’s a credit to Tindersticks’ collective talents, then, that only a few songs on the album arrive not quite fully formed, and most work the listener over the way great, previous Tindersticks compositions do – with a mixture of exhilaration and despair, richly arranged in either case.
Does this mean Tindersticks is back to stay?
``There is a real spirit of discovery around us at the moment,'' Staples said. ``Every time we get together, that spirit seems to step on to somewhere else. When there is that energy around it’s best to just let it push you along.''
TINDERSTICKS At the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville, 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $20 at the box office and Ticketmaster outlets.