Prior to this album if I’m honest the name Stuart A Staples was one that I was only familiar with in passing. The music of the Tindersticks was something that I had encountered in only the vaguest sense (although I intend to rectify this based on what I have encountered so far). So checking out Staples latest solo release (his second) was another one of those impulses that could have slipped either side of the fence. Thankfully the impulse guided me right and although it was one song that dragged me in the experience as a whole has proven a commendable enough effort.
There’s a modest streak running through Leaving Songs starting with the understated packaging moving right through every song in the collection. Maybe it’s the subject matter or maybe it’s the songs themselves but there is no bluster and bravado on this album in any way shape or form. Yet every performance has a quiet strength in it. Shored up by the pitch gravel of Staples voice that commands your attention, followed by the dense bar room styling that hangs behind it. Lyrically Staples paints vivid pictures of separation, loss and of course leaving. This is a voice of experience weaving poetry against a backdrop of music that always holds a relevance in terms of mood.
There will of course always be a host of comparisons that an album of this nature will draw. The maudlin shapes it creates could arguably be likened to Nick Cave, Richard Hawley or at a push even Morrissey. The truth of the matter is there is a sense of earthiness and reality to these recordings that the others might share but an authenticity that on their lesser days might struggle to find. There is no wry depreciating humour in this collection, and very little in the way of happy endings. There are a couple of guest vocal performance on this album from Maria McKee and Lhasa De Sela. Both performances break up the Staples vocals nicely bringing a nice shaft of light into what would otherwise be an album that would be impenetrably dark. In fact its That Leaving Feeling to which De Sela contributes which made me purchase the album initially, and for me remains possibly its strongest moment.
This is not as you may have gathered an album of rapturous highs and exhilaration. Instead it’s a rather morose body of work but created in an intelligent and articulate way. This is one for those quiet, bruised and contemplative nights in.
