As a song title, it ranks among the worst in modern musical history, but Jism by Tindersticks is one of the Best Songs Of All Time. Yes, capital letters. That moment about five minutes in when the violins start to shriek and pluck and the drummer lets go is almost, well, orgasmic. Dark, symphonic chamber pop that demands to be heard with the lights low and a whiskey in hand — a very English sort of repression, bursting out.

The original version on the first Tindersticks album is great. (Both their first and second albums are, confusingly, self-titled. And both are essential — I might even give the second a slight edge.)

But there’s an even better version on The Bloomsbury Theatre 12.3.95, a live album the band released in small numbers at their creative peak, just after the first two albums, complete with a 24-piece string section. Man, does that thing cook — I could listen to it all day, and have been, lately.

Here’s an MP3 of the track. And just for kicks, here’s another track El Diablo En El Ojo, where the vocals are a bit subpar, but the sense of theatricality and impending doom is great. (Dig that chaotic string swell at 1:45.) And here’s another, City Sickness, perhaps a bit more mainstreamy.

(The live album is not, to my knowledge, available in the U.S. any more. Best deal: Buy it from one of Amazon’s zShops as part of the remastered second album, which includes Bloomsbury as a bonus disc. Available for as low as $19.)

I should point out I’ve been told Tindersticks are an acquired taste. There are some bands I love that I try to turn on other people to with a near 100-percent success rate. Then there are bands like Tindersticks. I don’t get it, personally; unlike much of the music I loved in the mid-1990s, I’ve never tired of them. If it’s an acquired taste, go acquire it! But to each his/her own.

16 January 2006

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