Some things never change, thankfully
Tindersticks
The Hungry Saw (Constellation)
ESSENTIAL "Feel the Sun"
After a five-year hiatus, Tindersticks have returned, and they've changed almost nothing. The masters of the mournful dirge, best known for their self-titled 1993 debut and 1997's superb "Curtains," took time off to regroup and for leader Stuart Staples to move to rural France. The years away may have recharged Staples's batteries, but the music itself sounds much the same, which is a good thing. "The Hungry Saw" plays Staples's rumbling baritone against the careful plinks of David Boulter's keyboards, and Lucy Wilkins's strings, creating a sound half "Tilt"-era Scott Walker, half Walker Brothers pop. The album intersperses instrumentals like the circus-y "The Organist Entertains" and the driving, Stereolab-esque "E Type" with traditional Tindersticks ballads including the violin-drenched "Feel the Sun" and the lumbering "Mother Dear." "All the love inside me felt like a drop in the dirty ocean," Staples observes dolefully on "All the Love," but "The Hungry Saw" is not weighed down by doomed romance or the world's myriad sorrows. Instead, the lush orchestration and sharp rhythm section give Tindersticks a buoyant quality; this may be music for a dark night of the soul, but it's equally suitable for chasing those Sunday-morning blues. 