Too Young to Die Saint Etienne - recommend more of their stuff...

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See? Who says I don't pay attention to good ol' ILM. I picked this up when I recognised some of their tunes on the threads about them and wondered why I had never bought anything of their before. Especially since Sarah is an ultra-babe (a fella I once knew joked about "filling her cracknell" but I'll leave that out here).

Anyway, what else is worth picking up? I'm especially fond of the old faves like hobart paving. hug my soul and he's on the phone - do they get less poppy as their career expands though?

― C-Man (C-Man), Sunday, 25 January 2004 22:21 (twenty-two years ago)

They sort of go back and forth between the poppy and the arty, often on the same record. 'Good Humor' is their most straight-ahead pop album (very 60s retro), 'Finisterre' and 'So Tough' are poppy and artily conceptual at the same time, 'Tiger Bay' mixes dance pop with folky ballads and 'Sound of Water' is all minimalist electronica.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Sunday, 25 January 2004 22:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Start at the beginning, C-Man - Foxbase Alpha is a peerless artefact, and you should find it quite easily for not much cash.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Sunday, 25 January 2004 22:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Everyone should be encouraged to get everything they have ever done or you'll be missing out to SOME extent. The original Tiger Bay seems to have been a bit superseded by the (German?) import version with He's On The Phone and various supercrucial b-sides on it also, but is absolutely worth owning both this and the original version, if you can find it. I don't think you can put a foot wrong with st etienne though.

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Sunday, 25 January 2004 22:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I saw Tiger Bay in a local second hand shop the other day, but really wanted "He's on the Phone".

― C-Man (C-Man), Sunday, 25 January 2004 22:41 (twenty-two years ago)

You should probably get Too Young To Die if you can still find because nothing else has I Was Born On Christmas Day on it and that is one of the very very most important and brilliant-est. And TYTD has ALSO possibly been discontinued because of Smash The System (which is also great and worth buying but lacks too many highlights to serve as totally satisfactory overview of everything ever. and only covers the heavenly/creation years also)

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Sunday, 25 January 2004 22:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah... get everything, seriously. Not a dud in the bunch.

― derrick (derrick), Sunday, 25 January 2004 23:09 (twenty-two years ago)

'foxbase' is the only album i still have on three formats.

― piscesboy, Monday, 26 January 2004 12:28 (twenty-two years ago)

If you're getting Tiger Bay C-Man see if you can get the US version, it's got a photo cover of a wistful young lady not a painted cover of some coastal scene, and it's got lots of good extra tracks, better sequencing and has "He's On The Phone". I think it's replaced the original version here - you see it in Fopp for a fiver and in Borders' cheapie sale.

So Tough is very good indeed, too.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 26 January 2004 12:31 (twenty-two years ago)

But the US release doesn't have Tankerville on it, which is U&K, though the alternative mix of Like A Motorway is very good.

― edward o (edwardo), Monday, 26 January 2004 12:35 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah ,yeah, ah yeah

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 26 January 2004 13:26 (twenty-two years ago)

If you're getting Tiger Bay C-Man see if you can get the US version, it's got a photo cover of a wistful young lady not a painted cover of some coastal scene

That's not the US version, it's the European version. The US version has a photo of the band on the cover and yet another track listing including "I Was Born on Christmas Day."

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 26 January 2004 14:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I stand corrected!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 26 January 2004 14:26 (twenty-two years ago)

well, you're right about it being the best version!

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 26 January 2004 14:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Except that the segue from Tankerville into Boy Scouts Of America is a tiny tiny bit wonky. But then if I didn't know the original version I would probably never have noticed. Hate Your Drug is definitely a St Et All Time Top Five-r also.

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Monday, 26 January 2004 14:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, the Euro cover, ie. the girl in a Southern village, is one of my fave covers ever.

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Monday, 26 January 2004 14:40 (twenty-two years ago)

That's a luverly pic. I have the US version and the cover is a stinker. Nice to have "I Was Born On Xmas Day" though.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Monday, 26 January 2004 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes the Euro version of Tiger Bay! BEST ALBUM EVER!!!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 26 January 2004 23:23 (twenty-two years ago)

No, that's So tough with the bonus CD 'you need a mess of help to stand alone'.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 26 January 2004 23:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I personally recommend "So Tough". The most "classic" Saint Etienne album with loads of catchy (pop) tunes and attitude. Yes, they kind of got less pop on the later albums, but a few (notable exceptions) are:

"Action" from Finisterre
"Soft Like Me" from Finisterre
"Heart Failed (In the Back of a Taxi)" from Sound of Water
"We're in the City" from Places to Visit (EP)

Also if you like "He's on the phone" check out the superb "Burnt-out car"

― daavid, Monday, 26 January 2004 23:32 (twenty-two years ago)

The euro version of Tiger Bay also has the blissy S. Price sleevenotes which are probably my favourite on any record ever ever. Tim pretty much BANG ON here.

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Monday, 26 January 2004 23:38 (twenty-two years ago)

It's funny how the sleeve notes often do really reflect the feel of the albums. Like Reynolds' notes for Sound of Water are too technical for what they're being used as - they expose to easily the science of the music - which I think is the problem (to the extent that there is one) with Sound of Water itself - the sonic focus is too self-conscious and explicit. Whereas Douglas Coupland's for Good Humor are nice (I like the bit about beautiful-sounding words) but at once too vague and too narrow - for Coupland it's all about the pop/love swoon, and because of this he recasts Saint Etienne as a tribute band to a third definable property, rather than allowing them to be their own beast - which is the problem with Good Humor's vision of perfect pop. And Mark Perry's for Finisterre are quite obviously wrapped up in nostalgia and new beginnings, returning to the start of the book and reopening the first page.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 00:16 (twenty-two years ago)

This is a fearsomely perfect analysis. Not forgetting the Burchill ones for TYTD (her FINEST HOUR by a colossal distance, with all the late-afternoon shiverings and torrential nostalgia overload basking).

What I really love about the Price sleevenotes is how they (along with added tracks) totally Euro-ify what I previously saw as a super-rustic-England motorway-to-coast-camping-on-beach record; now it is huge blue skies and scando-fresh summer deliciousness beyond anything else ever.

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 00:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes exactly! I think what really makes Tiger Bay for me (and allows it to pip the otherwise perfect So Tough) is how much vaster than their other records it feels. All the stylistic detours feel less like curios and more like a fluid shift of scenery on a long journey, and I never get the sense that any of it is "stylised" - whatever/wherever they are the group is always exactly itself.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 01:19 (twenty-two years ago)

My favorite are the sleeve notes for Continental about the "Pebble Mill feeling." But Coupland really nailed it with the "bright glorious present" thing, and I think Etienne did as well with Good Humor. Maybe that's why Good Humor always seems to be the non-fan favorite... here in the US a lot of people are stuck in that imaginary smear of forever-now between 1950 and the Internet.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 02:02 (twenty-two years ago)

wait, so does the german version of tiger bay have the s. price sleevenotes? I have a much-loved CDR, & if I'm going to get something 2ndhand from overseas . . . apparently there was a 15-track heavenly reissue - is that identical?

― etc, Tuesday, 27 January 2004 02:16 (twenty-two years ago)

the version i think most of us are talking about (the best one) has "hate your drug" on it. none of the others do. i've seen it called the austrian version, the german version and the european version. from this thread it seems heavenly have reissued this version in the UK? the original UK version doesn't have the s. price sleeve notes.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 02:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I haf never read the Price liner notes nor heard the Euro Tiger Bay and I am sad.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 03:31 (twenty-two years ago)

When I get home I may even transcribe them Ned!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 03:41 (twenty-two years ago)

:-) :-) That would be merry and welcome!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 03:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Have to say Foxbase Alpha is not winning me over...

― C-Man (C-Man), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I tend to think of that as the sketchbook for "So Tough"

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:55 (twenty-two years ago)

It's weird how Foxbase Alpha seems to be regarded as A Classic London Album cause surely So Tough is SO MUCH MORE so? London Belongs To Me, point taken, but she sounds almost touristy and adventuring on that whereas on Mario's Cafe it is their routine and she/they are absolutely living it and it is glory.

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Thursday, 29 January 2004 22:36 (twenty-two years ago)

what's the cd with the great booklet of photographs of young kids?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Thursday, 29 January 2004 22:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Alex OTM and Fritz it's So tough.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 29 January 2004 22:48 (twenty-two years ago)

does anyone know the origin of those photos? I remember them as being really amazing, but haven't had the disc in so long now.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Thursday, 29 January 2004 22:50 (twenty-two years ago)

For some reason I used to think that was a boy on the cover of "So Tough" but it's Sarah Cracknell isn't it?

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Thursday, 29 January 2004 22:51 (twenty-two years ago)

i looked it up, that's not the one... i think it was the "sound of water" or something... the photos inside the booklet, not the cover

note: i may be very confused

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Thursday, 29 January 2004 22:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Sound Of Water is all Julian Opie popart landscapey aceness, as Billy says the kids one is surely So Tough?

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Thursday, 29 January 2004 23:01 (twenty-two years ago)

i popped into a record shop last night to figure it out... i was referring to Good Humour - the one w/ douglas coupland liner notes. the photos all look like stock photos from a newspaper archive or something. black & white pictures of kids and teenagers and random street scenes.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 30 January 2004 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

For some reason I used to think that was a boy on the cover of "So Tough" but it's Sarah Cracknell isn't it?

it is?

― Shooz (shooz), Friday, 30 January 2004 14:39 (twenty-two years ago)

is anyone else sick of these absurd c-man threads? ;)

― jole, Friday, 30 January 2004 14:40 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah next he'ill start a thread about how the he-man theme is a lost chic classic ;-)

― omg, Friday, 30 January 2004 14:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Fritz: the Good Humor photos are courtesy of Magnum Photos, a famous photo agency, so yes, archive pictures. Incidentally, I think the booklet is the best thing about that album. Nice songs, but the lack of any Euro-synth sheen makes the album too monochrome.

― Janne (Janne), Friday, 30 January 2004 19:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I was a bit shocked 'Good Humor' when I first heard it - no samples! no disco beats! real instruments! - but I love it to death now. Though my favourite songs are all on the free 'Fairfax High' CD that came with it.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Friday, 30 January 2004 20:05 (twenty-two years ago)

It's entertaining how close Fairfax High comes to being better than Good Humor. Just a smidge too many instrumentals.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 30 January 2004 20:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Good Humor but it frequently sounds slight, and the lyrics esp. are tongue in cheek in a really upfront way whereas on all other Saint Etienne albums you can at least pretend that Sarah really believes what she's singing.

Esp. after the awesome solemnity of Tiger Bay it kinda bugs me.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 31 January 2004 07:00 (twenty-two years ago)

two bands that are obviously influenced by saint etienne are Instant Cafe Records(though in a jittery dance vein) and Sprinkle Boyish(good humour-ish but not as swedish), both are japanese and quite good actually. So Tough - Good Humour were amazing times, i've yawned since though, I thought the last one was outright awful but maybe I shoudl listen again.

― keith m (keithmcl), Sunday, 1 February 2004 01:01 (twenty-two years ago)

You certainly should. I think it's one of their best.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Sunday, 1 February 2004 14:09 (twenty-two years ago)

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