The Emerald entertainment desk gets an avalanche of promotional photos for bands, movies and various “acts” during any given week. This special column takes a moment to present the most bizarre image received.
Animals have been a key component of the music industry for years. Whether it be a profile shot of an oversized hog ready for the auction block on the cover of Cake’s “Prolonging the Magic” album or the magnificent sound of a cow bell illuminating the chorus of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” the fact remains that our predecessors on the evolutionary scale can help move some serious units at the local Sam Goody.
Brit rockers Tindersticks have this quality in spades with the cover of their new album, “Can Our Love …”
So, what does it say about a band and its musical direction when the new album cover features a man nestling up to the snout of a gigantic donkey? According to a write-up by Rolling Stone magazine printed on the back of the photo:
“Tindersticks’ Stuart Staples is one cafe poet crooner who redeems his pretensions with his crushed velvet cummerbund of a voice … He makes love to his torments like Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, or maybe Neil Diamond at some nightmarish gin palace where they have an after-midnight special on absinthe refills.”
The eight-song disc is scheduled for release on Tuesday, but if the anticipation is just too much to bear, snippets of the first tracks can be sampled at cdnow.com