Words and Music by Saint Etienne

I really like the new album a lot but there is no way it's as good as Turnpike which is probably my third favourite album after the first two. Words & Music doesn't have the variety or flow like Turnpike does but there is plenty to love on here.

I disagree. The FACT review actually misses some of the problems with the album but it's the only one I've read that makes sense. eg. This: "it’s painfully reminiscent of being cornered by your best mate’s hippy-ish mum the morning after a heavy night out, listening to her discuss her youth as she cheerfully scrubs your vomit from her sofa and waves away your apologies.". Very OTM.

xpost BTW.

I don't know if "lol, they're old" is ever a valid musical critique

The review does actually excuse that by stating that they bring it on themselves, which makes sense to me.

Also, they are not really that old. Same age as George Harrison was when he released "When We Was Fab".

’25 Years’ is Goldfrapp with all traces of sex, lust and luridness replaced with the preoccupations of a couple from Location, Location, Location.

I'm quite possibly OK with that.

somehow I'm not sure "lol old woman, you asked for this" is any better

Listening to this now for the first time btw; I don't really know Saint Etienne aside from "Only Love Can Break Your Heart"

I mean, the only thing I took away from that review is that the reviewer is a dick

regardless of that review's ~accuracy~/validity/etc, the pull quote from it on the FACT homepage - "Sounds like it was written by a quiz machine in a Wetherspoons" - is one of the funniest disses I have read in a while.

Indeed. Plus, I like music reviewers who are dicks. It's traditional.

i was a lil surprised no one took a crack @ remixing '25 years'. if u make it sound like less of a showtune i could be into it. as is, it's def my least fav track

awful synthesizers worthy of presets

This is an annoying meme. I'm sure there are plenty of synth presets that sound cool and I'd guess that Saint Etienne doesn't just use presets anyway.

The first paragraph is fine. The second paragraph's detour into preset-land is "DANGER WILL ROBINSON" territory well-mined by people who can't make a cogent argument for why they dislike something without leaning heavily on cliche and by the time it gets to "Sarah Cracknell is your mum", I have no reason to take anything this guy says seriously. (The later evocation of pilates as the specter of all things horrible and awful is just confirmation.)

My main beef with the FACT review is that it completely dismisses the music as

"...a dirge of acoustic guitars, awful synthesizers worthy of presets and a rhythm section straight from a Tune A Day drum tutorial."

4 songs into this

I am finding this to be very polite, mannered music that is not really my thing. It appears to be well made and I kind of dig "Heading For The Fair" but there's nothing that's making a lasting impression.

Also, yes St. Etienne have grown up and they are writing about their love of music past and present. What is wrong with that?

"Tonight" is good, though

it's actually kind of hilarious that dude raises pilates as something to get angry about re: album subject matter since this song is kind of evocative of Madonna to me, particularly in some of the vocal phrasing (and of course Madonna caught a ton of shit for rapping about pilates on "American Life")

Also, they are not really that old. Same age as George Harrison was when he released "When We Was Fab".

um an interesting analogy.

A tambourine usually isn't an EVENT but when it came into the proceedings at around 1:12 on "Answer Song", I stopped, rewound a little bit, and listened to it again

DJP if you like "Tonight" you will also probably like "DJ".

"very polite, mannered music that is not really my thing" and "nothing that's making a lasting impression" = my problem with most of SE albums since 1994.

I still adore "Tonight."

but I'm a sucker for that big beat and ooh-ooh-ooh-oohs

xxpost The two remixes of "Tonight" are better though. I love the one that opens the second disc. And the one that retains the song should really have been the album version.

The preset thing is lazy and stupid. But "dirge", yes. I find the positive reviews to be more baffling. I think the Guardian said something like "dizzy with the joys of pop" whereas I find it to be claustrophobic and irritating. Pitchfork said it was the best since Tiger Bay which is quite laughable. I should mention that I am a massive fan of the band, have travelled to foreign countries to see them etc and generally behaved like Sarah Cracknell's schoolmates re. Peter Gabriel about them. It's just that they have completely lost their way with this album.

hahahaha "Record Doctor" started and I was all "oh why are you going all Dirty Projectors here ;_;"

"Record Doctor" is the only obvious dud, imo. both musically and lyrically.

Fortunately it's short enough.

now that I hear the lyrics to "Popular", I don't quite get how dude got the impression it was about going to wine bars, which is another point against his review

okay I hear the Kylie-isms on "DJ"

wine bars are dope imo, vv chill and fun. i also like beer bars. why can't we have everything in life? fern bars were probably cool too. why was that used as a steely dan dis? idk, reviewers are amusing sometimes.

"wine bars" as a pejorative makes my teeth grind as much as "soy latte-drinking liberals."

music for soccer moms can be pretty good too.

my final verdict on this is "this album made me look to see if the first Broadcast album was on Spotify, which it is, so now I'm happy"

xpost. This is not music for soccer moms. It's music supposed to appeal to music freaks. I played this for my wife who is not a soccer mom but is certainly not a million miles from that demographic. North American, loves music but is completely disinterested in music culture, record stores, expensive headphones etc. She was quite revolted by "Over The Border" and made me take it off at track two. I noticed she was listening to the remixes yesterday though.

o i was talking more generally, like music for rednecks can be awesome also.

To be fair, that last ICP album was a worse mistake than Words and Music by Saint Etienne.

... what does that have to do with anything (also, who has paid attention to ICP as a musical act since 1999?)

You are posting on ILM and yet you ask that question?

1000 posts and counting:

Gathering Of The Juggalos 2009 Infomercial

"as a musical act"

Don't let those "some reviews" put you off, kraudive. Most of them are favourable (and that FACT one is completely OFFTM).

― daavid, Wednesday, May 30, 2012 7:00 PM (3 hours ago)

It was the FACT review a little, yes. But more really threads like this, containing comments from obvious fans of later albums who said they were underwhelmed. Of course, I'll make my own decision when I have time.

Well, I've given it several listens over the past week, and there are one or two things on it that I think are okay, but I think I'm ready to give up on this album. It just isn't doing it for me. The Words just aren't very interesting - where's the old, strange poetic imagery of lines like "rain falls like Elvis tears", or "oh, the clown's no good" - and the Music is fairly characterless poptimist din. Oh well.

I need to get this earworm of my first encounter with "Systems of Romance" out of my head first.

xp see?

I think it's the last four songs that really make the album.

― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, May 22, 2012 9:35 AM (1 week ago)

Very much agree with this.

Synth at the end of the chorus in "DJ" is very Italo.

xxxxp hey thanks everything! glad you like it.

we've only just had our copies through and clocked that the remix before ours is by Richard 'Grid/Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve' Norris.
had no idea who 'Time And Space Machine' was!

I think the FACT reviewer was annoyed because the album has tunes on it. I realise that this is a terrible neoliberal conceit in FACT World.

What's that obvious soundtrack-y sample at the start of 25 Years? It's probably really obvs and is totally bugging me.