Pitchfork

Paired with the band's name, the title "The Flicker of a Little Girl" makes me think the members are setting young children ablaze. Fortunately, there are no arson elements on this track from Tindersticks' upcoming album The Lonely Saw-- their first in five years-- just a laconic sound like a lonely walk under a threatening sky. The band plays as if through a gauze filter, with the flute, piano, and guitar fuzzing together into a soft-focus pastoral backdrop for Stuart Staples's vocals-- Nick Drake in slo-mo. A bewitching instrument that has deepened slightly with age-- hollow where it should be full, and vice versa-- Staples' deep voice instills the song's reminiscences with a gentle mournfulness. What truly sells the sentiment, however, is perhaps the most potentially incongruous sound in the mix: the back-up singers ooh-ooh-ooh-oohing behind him like the Pips on an autumn hike.

MP3:> Tindersticks: "The Flicker of a Little Girl"
[from The Hungry Saw; due 04/28/08 from Beggars]