Tinderbox
Album: Counting Time
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.tinderboxacoustic.com

There's a line on "Homeward Bound", the opening track on "Counting Time", the new album from Dorset duo Tinderbox: "It's funny that you find sometimes a feeling that you've known someone forever, then it dawns on you that you might never see their face a second time." It's a line and a song that really gives the album a context. The song with plays with the contradictions of a yearning for both travel and the end of a journey, a sense of belonging.

It's a theme that gets repeated through the album, albeit through many contexts, for example the next song, "Lovely To Me" covers the subject of a skin deep beauty and the rich beauty that comes from within, the one that doesn't see the aesthetic, but which sees the underlying depths, the reality.

There's another sense that sweeps across the album, togetherness, you can almost feel Monique, vocals, delivering parts of the album staring into Dan's, guitar, eyes as she's delivering a number of songs. If that sounds a little twee, it's not, far from it, it's about shared experience and how seeing that through good times and bad, builds that real sense of being part of a greater whole.

This is well written album, largely delivered with an Americana feel that provides a counter point to the Irish lilt of Monique's vocal style, almost like the sounds of Erin reaching across the sea searching for a corresponding chord to strike and in doing so being neither one nor the other, but a genuine sum of two parts.

There were times when I felt that the songs on "Counting Time" came too close together. I found myself with the previous song lingering on in my mind as the next one came in. Obviously there's nothing the artists can do about that, it's totally impractical to leave gaps. I noticed it particularly when the sultry sax that enhance "Valentino" is still washing over you as the aural delight of "Amelia's Dancing" comes in, with its change of mood.

This feels like a very personal album, one you feel glad Tinderbox chose to share. The album sleeve gives the impression of a couple relaxing at home. It's not too much of a leap to imagine them just playing and singing for the unadulterated pleasure of it, it's just they've left the door slightly ajar for us to listen to them as we sit in the kitchen, drinking coffee and hoping we don't disturb them.

Neil King