The Waiting Room is the eleventh studio album by the English band Tindersticks, released on 22 January 2016 on the City Slang label. Some editions of the album came packaged with a short film that had been commissioned for each song by various directors.
Opening track "Follow Me" was the final song recorded for the album. When the band needed a piece of music to act as an introduction, Stuart Staples and musical arranger Julian Siegel used the melody from Bronisà Âaw Kapers soundtrack to the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty, which Staples had found himself humming as he walked down the street. "We Are Dreamers!" features vocals by Jehnny Beth of Savages, who recorded her part in ten minutes.
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, The Waiting Room received an average score of 82, based on 20 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Marc Burrows of Drowned in Sound called it "a rich, warm, comfort blanket of a record, marbled with veins of darkness and light", while AllMusic reviewer Thom Jurek called it a "mixed bag".
All songs written by Stuart A. Staples, except where noted.