Beggars Banquet Us
2006
Leaving Songs
About This Album
Leaving Songs by Tindersticks frontman Stuart Staples is his second solo album; his first, Lucky Dog Recordings 03-04, wasn't released in the States until now, as it is included here, thankfully, as a bonus disc. Leaving Songs is a true departure for Staples. The vocals and backing tracks were recorded in Nashville by Mark Nevers with the overdubs recorded back at Lucky Dog in the U.K. After the first lines of "Goodbye to Old Friends," the opening cut, it's obvious that this record is different, in its way, from what Staples has done before, either with or without his band; the tempo, horn lines, the chorus of female backing vocalists. That's not to say it's not immediately identifiable as Staples. There's no hiding that voice. He emerges here as a more "traditional" kind of songwriter; the tunes are more conventional in structure, but like his spiritual mentor Leonard Cohen, Staples' lyrics are rooted firmly in the terrain of love, loss, regret, passage, dissolution, and absence. The cover, a painting of a seaman smoking a pipe, is telltale, as is the title. Each song here is about transition, walking away, looking back after having left, preparation for leaving, and all of them read through the guise of love.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,4,7 and 10)

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