Remorse, transience, duets, sombreness, chamber strings, aching melodies; '_Sometimes It Hurts_' by the* Tindersticks* wins the 'Song Most Likely To Sound Like Tindersticks' Award by a country mile.

But that's the point of the Tindersticks, isn't it? You could fuck off to a gay bar, start a nuclear war and two years later, in a post apocalyptic world of Mad Max style human abandon and scavaging soundtracked by a garage rock Billy Idol (as these things inevitably are), somewhere in a fallout shelter (dark and claustrophobic, naturally) Stuart Staples' besuited gang of noir would be preparing another opus, unflustered and unfettered by goings on elsewhere.

This track, lullabied with Ihasa De Sela, is most reminiscent of the band's wonderful almost-hit, 'Travelling Light'. Not quite as good, but still very ace indeed.