Saint Etienne: So Tough & Sound of Water (Deluxe Editions)
Saint Etienne: So Tough & Sound of Water (Deluxe Editions)
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Tuesday, 08, Sep 2009 11:31
Heavenly Recordings, out now.
In a nutshell...
Perfect pop across two eras
What's it all about?
Deluxe reissues of Saint Etienne's second album, from 1993, and their fifth, from 2000. These reissues both feature an additional disc of B-sides, rare and previously unreleased tracks and are being released ahead of the band's upcoming gigs performing their debut album in its entirety in London and Manchester.
Who's it by?
Saint Etienne, named after the French football team (European Cup runners-up in 1970), were formed in Croydon in 1990. Formed by former music journalists and fronted by Sarah Cracknell they were early pioneers of indie dance music, fusing traditional English pop with sounds more common to the emerging house and rap scenes.
As an example.
"Squeezy bottles under Pepsi signs/Joe and Johnny chew the bacon rind/Jackie wants to meet the Glitter Band/Dilworth is a strange and lovely man/And Eubank wins the fight/And did you see the KLF last night?" - Mario's Cafe (from So Tough)
"I'm thinking of you, I'm thinking of your new green dress/I saw it unfold on my plain near Bepindton Fair/Tall sycamores, your raven hair/I saw it so slow through the tall grass." - Sycamore (from Sound Of Water)
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Saint Etienne were much feted by the likes of NME and Melody Maker in the early 1990s and broke into the top 20 several times throughout the decade. Although they never seemed to make the breakthrough to massive mainstream acceptance and success, the recent reissue of their key albums seems time for a much deserved reappraisal.
What the others say
"An irresistible set of danceable, well-constructed pop." - All Music Guide, on So Tough
"The result is the same as always: a pretty tasty album, even if its shelf-life may not eternal." - Pitchfork, on Sound Of Water
So is it any good?
These two reissues represent two very different Saint Etiennes - on So Young an emerging chart-worthy group eager to build on the success of its debut, on Sound Of Water a maturing, niche act keen to remain relevant and prove its continuing relevance to the faithful few.
So Young lacks the giddiness of the band's debut but makes up for it by sounding far less naive. It mostly works on the same formula, then relatively groundbreaking, of combining the emerging dance culture with classic pop aesthetics. However, it is immediately clear from the breathy, joyous pure pop of Mario's Cafe, the opening track, that this formula has become more refined, less jarring.
On this, You're In A Bad Way and Hobart Paving, Saint Etienne perfect a very British and, more specifically, a very London style which, far less confrontational and bitter than the Britpop of subsequent years, wears its provinciality with pride. There is experimentalism too - No Rainbows For Me predicts trip-hop years before the fact and Leafhound combines the allure of prime era New Order with the sweet melancholy of Cracknell's vocal. The frequent film and TV samples, however, probably very exciting at the time, now serve to irritate far more often than they amuse and the odd touches of early house and Brit rap have not dated well.
Sound Of Water, from seven years later, paradoxically feels more dated than the earlier album. This is largely due to a surfeit of clicks and whirrs that date the music to a time when 'ambient' was a legitimate asset and William Orbit was riding high. It also suffers from a slight lack of ambition. There are still great pop songs such as Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi), Don't Back Down and Downey, CA but, by this stage, these hardly feel a stretch for the band. What really does lift much of the album is the involvement of the High Llamas' Sean O'Hagan whose esoteric string arrangements counter-balance Cracknell's breathy vocals perfectly and add an extra dimension to the album's opus, How We Used To Live.
Bonus tracks flesh out both releases but again highlight that the earlier album is essential Saint Etienne, the latter is required further listening.
7.5/10 & 6.5/10
Steve Braund