KT Tunstall - Tiger Suit
Rating
RIYL
Dallas FrascaWashington
Tegan & Sara
Phoenix
Release Date
10/05/2010
Label
Virgin RecordsTracklist
1. Uummannaq Song2. Glamour Puss
3. Push That Knot Away
4. Difficulty
5. Fade Like A Shadow
6. Lost
7. Golden Frames
8. Come On, Get In
9. (Still A) Weirdo
10. Madame Trudeaux
11. The Entertainer
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It is not a new thing for artists and musicians to, with an amount of talent and ingenuity, break down all preconceptions about themselves, their craft, or indeed an entire industry. In this vein Art Spiegelman made a comic about the holocaust worthy of a Pulitzer, Xavier Rudd turned the one man band to critical relevance, and the Coen Brothers were able to make movies that were so much better than the books. One assumption that good musicians seem to be constantly testing, however, is the possibility that pop music can be made accessible to those who don’t believe a great set of tits equates to musical ability. With KT Tunstall, I have no idea whether this attribute is relevant, but her third album Tiger Suit is pop music with a lot more to offer.
For the last 4 years, I’ve known one song by Tunstall, "Silent Sea," from the 2006 EMI compilation CD Coastal Chill 06. That song has since been one of my go-to “fuck this world off” tunes whenever I needed to disappear into music and had no idea where to start, yet I had no inclination to search for any more of her music. Turns out she’s done a fair bit. Since garnering fame originally with a chat show DIY performance of her song "Black Horse & the Cherry Tree," she’s had Grammy nominations, collaborations with Wilco and the Radiohead boys, as well as the opportunity to humiliate Dido when fans compared their music, which would have been kind of fun.
There is a sense of the tribal when Tiger Suit’s opening track "Uummannaq Song" kicks the album into gear, and apparently refers to the town where the singer experienced her worst ever performance… “I could live in this town / five years / before I head for home / and consider it odd / that I ever stayed.” She apparently took something from the experience, and it was the motivation to keep doing what she does… what a revelation? It is this self indulgent song writing that is one of the things that keeps me away from pop music at the best of times, so it wasn’t a huge surprise to hear it in the opening track. But from here the album opens up to be something much more. With a depth of country blues in "Push That Knot Away," and the choral harmony of "Lost," which gives off a weird Enya vibe, Tiger Suit spreads its influences fairly thin but manages to remain interesting. "(Still A) Weirdo" allows Tunstall to indulge in her self-looping and sampling ways, and album closer "The Entertainer" sees her paying tribute to her wide array of influences "Piano Man" style.
Hopefully Tunstall will be happier to share the RIYL provided than she was to hear comparisons with Dido, because they’re all artists heading the charge in music that is at once radio friendly, yet lyrically challenging and musically inspired. Tiger Suit is by no means a departure from her previous efforts, but the grungy soul pop will do its best to abate the thirst of any fan, and maybe if you’ve only heard one of her songs and it’s done good things for you, this will be worth checking out.
--Sandy Powell
Comments
Fishers, Indiana
This just makes me want to listen to Raein.
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Green Brook, NJ
this girl is rad. her last album was awesome, and this one is almost as good.