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Leaving Songs Image
Metascore
81

Universal acclaim - based on 11 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.6

Universal acclaim- based on 7 Ratings

  • Summary: Leaving Songs is the Nashville-recorded second solo disc for Tindersticks frontman Stuart Staples, who is joined by Maria McKee on one track.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. Leaving Songs sounds a lot like a Tindersticks album, one that eschews their more baroque offerings for mature balladry.
  2. New Musical Express (NME)
    80
    It's heady stuff, that fans of Serge Gainsbourg, Nick Cave, Scott Walker and anyone else that's ever sung miserable songs in a rumpled suit will be at home with. [10 Jun 2006, p.43]
  3. Mojo
    80
    It might have been captured anytime in the past four decades. [Jul 2006, p.114]
  4. Its warmth, honesty and intuitive sensitivity capture Stuart Staples firmly back to the dizzy high-quality heights of his cherishable early-career with the Tindersticks.
  5. 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.
  6. As a solo record, it's no declaration of independence, but by sticking to what he does best, Staples makes it ring with sadness and sophistication.
  7. Tindersticks fans will find very familiar, likable material on Leaving Songs.

See all 11 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. kent
    Jul 3, 2006
    10
    nice voice, nice album!
  2. Frank
    Jun 28, 2006
    9
    Beautiful! Great record!
  3. AlexM
    Sep 28, 2006
    9
    intense!
  4. claudioe
    Apr 24, 2007
    9
    great record.
  5. GuyH
    Jul 28, 2006
    8
    The last couple of albums by the Tindersticks were a bit over produced and too long considering there were some weak tracks included. Staples The last couple of albums by the Tindersticks were a bit over produced and too long considering there were some weak tracks included. Staples has stripped things right down here and it works well. 'That Leaving Feeling' and 'Already Gone' are right up there with great Tindersticks tracks like 'Travelling Light' and 'Marbles'. Expand