It’s hard to believe that Tindersticks are back with a new recording less than two years after The Hungry Saw, an album that was a comeback of sorts for a band who hadn’t released anything in five years. It was reasonable to assume they’d take that long again, but it seems like Saw really brought the band together and returned them to creativity. Falling Down a Mountain is the current result, and it’s not bad. 
The band’s enthusiasm and excitement at working are obvious throughout, so much so that, for the most part, it doesn’t even have that gloomy Tindersticks feel to it. Instead it feels quite joyful in parts, joyful and sunny, and Stuart Staples‘ singing even sounds happy (though not all the time, of course; they’d be a different band otherwise). It’s a change, an unexpected one, but it’s quite nice to listen to a band who so seem to enjoy what they’re doing and aren’t just going through the process for the sake of a contract or something — here’s a band who sound like they’re doing what they do simply because they want to, and they do it very well.
Having said that, there is a kind of rushed feel to the album that, for me, makes it slightly less satisfying than Saw. There are ten tracks in all, showcasing a variety of sounds and moods, from the brooding (“Falling Down a Mountain”) to the forgettable (“Peanuts”), and it’s all over rather abruptly. The songs and tracks don’t seem to mesh together as well as those on Saw did either, the overall effect leaving me wanting. A sharper critic may note that at times it feels like the band are following a kind of Tindersticks formula — there are instrumentals, spaghetti-western latin sounds, horns galore, and motown soul trappings. But I’m not that sharp, and while the album may not seem as whole as Saw did, there are enough stand-out moments to make it all worthwhile.
