Words and Music by Saint Etienne

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.

― kraudive, Wednesday, 30 May 2012 23:00 (11 months ago)

This is a lovely Saint Etienne album. It'd be good to read what people think a year or so in. It's sounding GREAT tonight, esp next to the Daft Punk that I've put it up against a lot this week. I love that also obv.

I like it a lot too. Its similar to their old stuff both in sound and "spirit" i think, and sort of stands out bc the vibe is very 90s. Great band.

X months later and this album makes me so happy. Much better than I initially thought.

This album could practically be an ilxor (of a certain age and place). And "Answer Song" is gigantic.

Yeah.

Damn i wish i put this on my iphone now. I want to hear it again.

After sitting with this for a while, it's not as good as I first thought. There's a few very strong songs (Tonight, When I Was 17) and several similar tracks that don't hit the same peaks. Also I don't usually complain about Autotune but it bothered me on this album - one thing I always loved about Sarah's voice was that bit of vulnerability when she wouldn't hit pitches perfectly, and I feel like it got Autotuned out? Not sure I would care if I wasn't so familiar with her voice from the pre-Autotune era.

Never got into this. Usually love Saint Etienne.

Ditto. The bonus disc is everything I want from a Saint Etienne album and I think as a stand-alone album it would be up there with any of their best if you made a couple of minor changes here and there. But I can't even listen to the main disc all the way through - it leaves me feeling queazy. Hate all that record store/vinyl fetish/I heart the 70s subject matter and Crackers' delivery and the way her voice is recorded is a major turn off. There are some nice musical bits but also lots of annoying sections. I think it's pretty poor overall.

Been out of the loop for a while but I really liked this and dig the new Suede album as well./jackie_harvey

Yeah I still love this. I don't rate it quite as highly as Turnpike House but it's up there. (Suede album is also great)

this album is so beautiful

otm

this album rules and i find most of the discussion of it itt extremely confusing

I relistened to this this weekend bcz of you and v much enjoyed it, so thank you

the more I think about it ,the more I feel W&M might actually be my favorite Saint Etienne album.

i was otm in this thread

often "DJ" is my favorite track ever recorded by anybody