Tindersticks have announced new album Distractions which will be released February 19 via City Slang. It's the group's 13th album and, while it was made during the pandemic, frontman Stuart Staples stresses this is not a "lockdown" record. "I think the confinement provided an opportunity for something that was already happening. It is definitely a part of the album, but not a reaction to it." The album contains last year's excellent cover of Television Personalities' "You'll Have to Scream Louder" and Distractions also features covers of Neil Young's "A Man Needs a Maid" and Dory Previn's "Lady with the Braid," plus four new originals.
The opening cut, "Man alone (can’t stop the fadin’)," is the new single and, at 11 minutes, is the longest song Tindersticks have ever recorded. With a throbbing bassline, there's an almost trance-like vibe to it, dark and hypnotic. "This song was always a journey but I wasn’t expecting it to be such a long one," says Staples. "We made a 6 minute version but it felt like it pulled off and stopped halfway to its destination. This was the beginning of a long journey in itself, to find the route needed to complete it - probably the biggest challenge a song or piece of music has given us. It was delicate and slippery right up to the final mix, which lasted a week! For me the song has a strange connection to the drum machine, bass guitar and voice combination of ‘Indignant Desert Birds’ - mine and Neils first band when I was 17. It was important to me that the words of the song were not a coherent narrative, but passing thoughts along the way."