You can just look at it and see it is weird. Uneven song running times-:41, 4:00, 1:08, 6:03. 2:07. Weird often one word titles - “Nectar”, “Pt. 1” “Marbles” “Jism” “Piano Song” “Tyed”.
Although it was similar in many ways to Nick Cave's work, it was even more cinematic, more orchestrated. It is fair to say now, bands like Lambchop, Belle and Sebastian and Portishead had not released their debut albums.
Hearing a single off of their second album (1995, originally an UK-only import) and hearing them through a more traditional 4 minute 51 song duet, I immediately got it.
1997s Curtains was the kind of indie gamble that bands could make then. The band brought in Isabella Rossellini and Ann Magnuson for duets. A mix of the band's strengths and a wider accessibility, it's a masterpiece of an album in my mind.
I have followed the band off and on ever since. They did have some detours - a hiatus between 2003 and 2007, lineup changes, soundtrack work and Stuart Staples's quite wonderful solo career. But for me, it really was 2019s No Treasure But Hope that reignited my passion for the band. It was heralded by the Critics. Standout tracks like “The Amputees”, “See My Girls” and “Pinky in the Daylight” highlight an album as good as that early work.
The follow up 2021s Distractions was short at seven songs- three of which were covers, and though I don't rate it quite as high as its predecessor, undoubtedly is one of the albums that I listened to the most that year.
I have similarly spent a lot of time with 2024s Soft Tissue.
It's hard to believe its album 14 as the band sounds as fresh as only legendary acts do at this point in their career. It does have the monster earworm here in Always A Stranger and the similarly haunting Nancy. Turned My Back has a rousing chorus- the band always having a spiritual kinship to Nick Cave's Bad Seeds, but always retaining their own sound. New World- the song that opens and closes the album similarly with a R&B feel that is part of the many sounds that find their way into the band's resume.
Soft Tissue is a standout album for a band that at this point had a ridiculous amount of output but like Cave, somehow manage to keep it fresh.
