Tindersticks are back and have announced Soft Tissue, their 14th studio album, which will be out September 13 via City Slang.
As for the themes of the new album, bandleader Stuart Staples quotes its opening lines (“Baby I was falling, but the shit that I was falling through / Thought it was just the world rising”) and then says “it seems all the songs on Soft Tissue inhabit this confusion somehow – despairing at the destruction, suspecting you are responsible.” He adds, “Musically, it seemed that since 2016’s The Waiting Room, the band’s output had been reactionary. The last two Tindersticks have been so opposed to each other — 2019’s No Treasure But Hope was an extremely naturalistic recording process — due in part as a reaction to the previous few years of experimental projects (High Life, Minute Bodies) and in turn as a reaction to this purity 2021’s Distractions became one of the bands most dense, experimental albums. It felt like time to stop lurching to these extremes and to find a way to marry the rigor of the songwriting and the joy of the band playing together with a more hard-nosed experimental approach.”
The album includes “Falling, the Light” which was released in February, and the new single is “New World.” Musically, it draws inspiration from ’70s soul, and it comes with a music video directed by Staples and featuring stop-motion animated ceramic figures that were created by his daughter, Sidonie, who also designed the album artwork.
“Sid was making these tiny ceramic characters, so I asked her to make some of the band,” Stuart says. “Later I wrote this song ‘New World’ about somehow trying make sense of this strange world I felt developing around me and these little guys came back into my mind – Let’s take them on a stop motion journey across a strange land, from the barren rocks to the bountiful fruit that is not familiar and maybe poisonous. Sid put the landscapes together and moved the figures, millimeters at a time. Neil Fraser took the photographs, we edited as we went along.”
Watch the video below.
Tindersticks also have a busy touring schedule ahead, though they currently have no plans to visit North America. All dates are listed below.
Soft Tissue:
1) New World
2) Don’t Walk, Run
3) Nancy
4) Falling, The Light
5) Always a Stranger
6) The Secret of Breathing
7) Turned My Back
8) Soon to be April
Tindersticks – 2024/2025 Tour Dates:
09.30 – CZ Prague – Hybernia Theatre
10.02 – AT Vienna – Akzent
10.03 – AT Vienna – Akzent
10.04 – AT Vienna – Akzent
10.05 – DE Munich – Prinzregententheater
10.06 – DE Leipzig – Schauspielhaus
10.07 – DE Berlin – Theater des Westens
10.09 – SE Stockholm – Göta Lejon
10.10 – NO Oslo – Centrum Scene
10.11 – DK Gothenburg – Pustervik
10.12 – DK Copenhagen – Konservatoriets Koncertsal
10.13 – DE Hamburg – Kampnagel
10.15 – NL Eindhoven – Muziekgebouw
10.16 – NL Utrecht – Tivoli
10.17 – BE Brussels – Cirque Royale
10.21 – UK Brighton – Dome
10.23 – UK Manchester – New Century
10.24 – UK Bristol – Beacon
10.25 – UK Birmingham – Town Hall
10.27 – UK Glasgow – Pavillion theatre
10.29 – ISL Reykjavik – Háskólabíó
11.02 – GR Athens – Christmas Theatre
11.04 – ES Madrid – Colliseum
11.06 – ES Barcelona – Palau de la Musica
11.08 – PT Covilhã – Teatro Municipal da Covilhã
11.09 – PT Leiria – Teatro José Lúcio Da Silva
11.10 – PT Aveiro – Teatro Aveirense
11.11 – PT Porto – Casa da Música
11.12 – PT Lisbon – Aula Magna
11.15 – FR Biarritz – L’Atabal
11.16 – FR Toulouse – Halle aux Grains
11.17 – FR Lyon – L’Opera
11.18 – FR Annecy – Bonlieu
11.20 – FR Merignac – Le Pin Galant
11.21 – FR La Rochelle – L’Espace Encan
11.23 – FR Cherbourg – Le Trident
11.26 – FR Rouen – L’Opera
11.27 – FR Nantes – Le Lieu Unique
11.28 – FR Nantes – Le Lieu Unique
11.29 – FR Rennes – Le Théâtre National de Bretagne
11.30 – FR Brest – Quartz
03.07 – DK arhus – Musik Huset
03.09 – DE Dortmund – Konzerthaus
03.10 – BE Antwerp – Queen Elisabeth Hall
03.11 – NL Amsterdam – Le Carré
03.12 – FR Paris – Salle Pleyel
03.14 – UK Glasgow – Pavilion Theatre
03.15 – IRL Dublin – 3Olympia
03.17 – UK London – Royal Albert Hall