Stuart A. Staples – “Memories Of Love”

Stuart A. Staples – “Memories Of Love”

Tindersticks frontman Stuart A. Staples had a run of solo albums last decade, but he hasn’t released an LP under his own name since 2006’s Leaving Songs (not counting Songs For The Young At Heart, the children’s album he put out with his Tindersticks bandmate Dave Boulter the following year). He’s back this June with a new one called Arrhythmia, which sounds fascinating.

Arrhythmia is anchored by “Music For ‘A Year In Small Paintings’,” a nearly 31-minute track that comprises the record’s second side. It has a complicated origin story involving musician friends reacting musically to hundreds of paintings of the sky by Staples’ wife, for use in a film about the paintings. “From these recordings, I chipped away at its form, guiding and editing,” Staples explains in a press release. “Each time there was an exhibition of the work there was a newly evolved version of the music to accompany it.”

The album’s other four tracks are also pretty long, though long to a slightly more conventional extent. Today we get to hear one of them, “Memories Of Love,” which clocks in at almost 11 minutes. It’s a meditative slow-burn that sometimes barely seems to exist at all, but the extreme subtlety only makes its every low-key musical machination feel like a revelation. Listen below.

Arrhythmia is out 6/15 on City Slang. Pre-order it here.

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