JOIN OUR CLUB: The Official Saint Etienne poll (#28 in a series) - Deadline 12th November

I've got the film lying around somewhere on dvd, but haven't seen it and am never really motivated enough to dig it out. Would it be worth watching?

So I have this band's Spotify overview page open...recommend me a running order? Chronological, random, other?

other: sort by composer credit (alphabetical)

Putting a word in for this brilliant Cracknell solo track. Up there with Hobart Paving for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jS10RMejxs

I've been anticipating for this poll for ages. I'm so excited! Coincidentally, I just saw them live for the first time two days ago and picked up the US tour bonus disc of Words and Music... some good tracks in there as well! I may upload a couple.

how were they? going 2mrw

They were good, though I have no point of comparison. I thought it was a bit on the low budget side -no musicians onstage, a very simple set... but really who needs that when you have the (still) stunning Sarah Cracknell in front of you.

Buy those tour CDs with the bonus disc, they will be worth a small fortune!

It's a shame but they seem to have stopped playing as a full band, no doubt for understandable economic reasons. Gone are the days when you could watch a five piece SE play Filthy, whilst standing behind Bob Stanley in the audience. Is it ok if I "rep" for Filthy at this point?

I'd rep for "Popular", but then ........................................

I don't know what the critical consensus is on their albums in relation to each other, but I'm digging the hell out of So Tough.

Words and Music is one of their very best imo

I've got So Tough on now and so far two Beastie Boys-used samples have jumped out from the first three tracks. Okay, one is When The Levee Breaks, but I wonder if that was their diet in the making of this.

Stevem did a rather fab Saint Etienne samples playlist on Spotify http://open.spotify.com/user/stevem78/playlist/12XrmOzxDJmXEGAeq2Ts5H

Oh yes, I'm playing. Gotta gets some top, top votes for People Get Real please.

That pic of Sarah above is... enchanting.

That playlist is excellent! I've always been curious about St. Etienne's influences. There are tons of bits in their songs that I feel like I've heard before... but I can almost never tell where they come from.

Does this count?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CqIEuNUHas

That playlist is excellent! One other that should be on there is 'I Wish It Would Rain' by the Four Tops, the opening piano riff is quoted in 'Mario's Cafe'.

Also something from a Lynch soundtrack not exactly sure what though.

I've been listening to Over The Border over and over tonight. The enunciation of the title kills me every time. She wasn't always so RP I don't think. I like it. Smirks.

damn, love those 2 cracknell 'tubes

i always thought 'desert baby' was the standout from lipslide, should revisit the whole thing

Started making a playlist for songs I would consider voting for, it currently has 59 songs on it. Think this poll might be the hardest one yet for me.

I will rep for these two tracks for now. This excellent Richard X produced single from 2009

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6GCVhPzHe0

and Teenage Winter, one of the many highlights from Tales From Turnpike House.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99uPV-7AN7U

This might be the most moving song they've done.

Here are the lyrics from Teenage Winter. The part about the Red Hot Chilli Peppers just kills me everytime.

Amy checks the shopping list
Pedal bin, washing-up racks, Santex
And she goes to the baker's to buy a loaf
Aah, she keeps forgetting
It's changed into the Tropicana Tanning Salon

And in the charity shop, Mrs Brown sits at the counter
Pricing down some old stock:
"The Moon's A Balloon", two copies of "Every Loser Wins"
"Noel's Blobbyland"
(Deluxe edition)

There's not much left on the doorstep recently
Something to do with eBay, Johnny reckons
He's bidding on it now for a Subbuteo catalogue 81-82
He'll win it, put it in a drawer and forget he ever bought it

Holding on to something
And not knowing exactly what you're waiting for

Now, teenage winter's coming down
Teenage winter throws a gown
Over every place I've been
And every little dream, forever
Phone rings in Gary's flat
(Can I speak to Mr G Stead, please?)
He hangs up and takes Tony the milk
See you in the 'Hat & Fan' at 7?

Gary can't believe the Claremont Road pitch
Is going to be covered in executive housing
He talks about the Newcastle game
Bontcho's debut but Tony can hardly hear him

They took the jukebox out
And the Aussie barstaff
Are playing the Red Hot Chili Peppers
He tells 'em what he thinks
He manages to keep it clean, he buys another round

Holding on to something
And not knowing exactly what you're waiting for

Now, teenage winter's coming down
Teenage winter throws a gown
Over every place I've been
And every little dream, forever

Mums with pushchairs outside Sainsbury's
With tears in their eyes
They'll never buy a Gibb Brothers record again
Their old 45's gathering dust
With the birthday cards they couldn't face throwing away

Teenage winter coming down
Teenage winter coming down

pretty excited about seeing them for the first time tomorrow nite

Finistere is a great film. I've watched it a bunch of times and enjoyed it each viewing.

its nice they did this us tour 2 coincide w/ this poll

Mmm Filthy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xp5lC6vE-M

and mmmhm Studio Kinda Filthy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz4HVxHi6Hk

just thinking about it the Richard X 'Beta' Girl VII is my favourite ever St Et recording. i must have listened to it in the last few years as many times as anything;
it's *mind-blowing*.

I'm trying to track down a physical copy of Foxbase Beta at the moment, seems pretty hard to get now.

the full length Cool Kids of Death is pretty spectacular. really dig everything from Foxbase Alpha but I especially hope Like A Swallow places. The live version they did for the FA tour was huge.

this is going to be vv difficult. st et mean a great deal to me and they've got too many tunes i love to start to narrow it down.

albums might be easier, ranging from all-time to merely very good imo:

ST = FA > WAM = GH > TB >> TFTH >> F >>> SOW

I think for me it would be

ST > FA>> WAM > F = TB > SOW >> GH = TFTH

Turnpike House is great, can't believe you'd have so down on your lists. Sound of Water is their only average album for me and even that has Heart Failed which is all time.

^
Co-sign, main problem for me in this poll is whether to go with ST or TFTH as best album.

Oh TFTH is great for sure. Think at a certain pt it comes down to what sound I personally prefer. I can't think of anything precisely wrong w finisterre for example. I love it. SOW suffers from being the st et album I listen to least I think.

I've been relisting to their albums today. I can't put my finger on why Sound of Water leaves me so cold, How we Used to Live, Heart Failed and Don't Look Down are great but I guess the rest of it just passed me by. It's not a terrible album just kind of average for them. It took me years to love Finisterre. Apart from Action the album doesn't really get going until Stop and Think it Over, the title track in particular is just brilliant. There are a few weak songs on there, I've always hated Soft Like me. I can't actually think of anything I would skip on Turnpike these days, not even Relocate.

Does this count?

daavid, yes!

TFTH would be great except I can't stand the intricate vocal harmonies, particularly on the more electronic-sounding tracks.

By a complete coincidence I've been marvelling @ the Too Young to Die comp. I love their sombre pop aesthetic so I'll be watching ths thread for more picks.

xps Kitchen Person - I have a Foxbase Beta, ownership of which gives me no pleasure. I might well be persuadable to sell, if you're interested.

I will vote in this, despite owning nothing by St Etienne (though I taped a load of their early stuff back in the day) and not really having heard anything they've done since 1995. I've just listened to Good Humor on Spotify, though and I like it.

Foxbase Alpha really is a fascinating record.

At the time I could never really hear the supposed club influence, but on listening now it's all over it. I think the reason is that club music (the stuff I was aware of at least, and forgive the descriptions I'm about to try out) underwent a big stylistic shift in 1991 from a sort of slower and dubbier/bassier sound to the more clattery high-end of rave. Foxbase Alpha is of the former - so if you got into music in 1991, as I did, calling it a club record seemed as strange as having Inspiral Carpets on the dance charts.

Now, though, the name and vaguely piano-house feel put it right at the end of the casual culture lineage that in retrospect peaked with Italia 90. It and the references they were using turn, with time, into a fascinating window on a London-that-might-have-been, all mods and continental style and leafy pavement cafes - like an attractive French provincial city instead of the monster it turned into. Which was always a fantasy, of course, but it's illuminating that the fantasy should once have been so small-scale.

The other thing is that it's also obviously an indie album, in its amateurishness and slack production above everything - they were using a completely different palette from all the guitar bands, but the underlying DIY aesthetic is the same. I hear it in the spaces in the music, and overreliance on repetition, making it kind of awkward but usually interesting. A couple of albums later they've become slicker, but imo have lost a lot in charm.

the foxbase beta 'commentary' with Richard X is priceless. they talk about the whole Foxbase era, kicking around in London in the early 90s, the first stirrings of Britpop etc. properly revealing and hillarious too.

Foxbase Alpha is such a wonderful scrapbook of enthusiasms, old and new. It's like London's answer to Paul's Boutique (which, of course, they sample). I love the fact that some of the key samples were ones they'd literally just discovered via Jon Savage - he brought the dub influence which contrasts so strikingly with their classic pop/C86 instincts - so they feel new and exciting. There's some exquisite songwriting on there but it's more about the overall sound. Later on the balance shifted which is why I still prefer the first three - the movie samples on the first two were integral to the worldview they were mapping out. I still find myself quoting bits like the "I'm Helen Stevens and I'm having a party" bit from Peeping Tom. The message of Join Our Club was so apt - it really did feel like a club, but an inclusive one. The really specific references in Mario's Cafe and London Belongs to Me gave me such a potent sense of who they were and the life they led - that spring-like sense of arrival in London from the suburbs and the sheer joy of gigs and cafes and meeting up with friends - and it felt like a life that was potentially accessible to me, which is not a feeling I've ever got from many records. That sense of personality and place dipped in their middle period and then came back, through the prism of middle age, on songs like Teenage Winter and lots of Words and Music. Between Teenage Winter and Over the Border I love the war between doubt and faith in leading a life dominated by pop music. Teenage Winter's so brutal in its soul-searching: "Their old 45s gathering dust/With the birthday cards they couldn't face throwing away." It's one of my favourite ever songs about growing older. It's like Foxbase is Before Sunrise and Teenage Winter is Before Sunset.

The more I listen, the more I'm associating them with Pulp. Neither can rely on great songwriting - imo they only have a handful of pop classics between them - and both are at their best when they stretch out and become more cinematic. The arrangements are often similar too, and the spoken-word samples carry out a similar role to Jarvis' monologues.

I'd also say the underlying themes - ordinary work, everyday relationships, unremarkable fantasies - are the same; but for all that, they end up telling very different stories. I'm not sure how to best characterise the difference - north/south or working-class/middle-class seems trite. Maybe cinema is the key; where Pulp feed on filthy kitchen-sinkisms, St Etienne are trying to paint sleek Fellinis.

Jarvis supplied the cover photo for the original issue of "I love to paint"

And when I saw St Etienne live in Cardiff on the "So tough" tour, Pulp were the support band.

The other obvious comparator, the later you get into their career, is the Pet Shop Boys. I've got Finisterre on just now and if Neil were singing then it practically is a PSB album.

Voted! I changed my mind on my number one a few times but am really happy with the one I went for in the end, I just couldn't think of another song that moves me the way Chicken Soup does.

Chicken Soup?? The 33-second dialogue sample?

um

Ballot submitted!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pBLDsv_tc8

They are masters of the incidental.

Sunday morning bump. After 14 ballots the top two tracks have the same number of points!

Nobody else vote!

I'm joking, readers.

Working on a ballot!

Hope there's some votes for their cover of the Fall's "Choc Stock":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P7drvy1U5E

Voted!

Didn't vote for this (off their We Are Icerink label comp) as AFAIK there's no involvement by SE, but it's v.uncannily Foxbase Alpha-esque:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0-ltQh1RJc

Always wanted that "Choc-stock" cover, ta.

Only noticed this thread yesterday, so rushed my vote somewhat. A fair few not-very-deep cuts, but more SoW and Finisterre era tracks than I might have guessed beforehand.

yea i feel like a v atypical voter w only 1 song from foxbase alpha and 1 from tigerbay

I hope it was Marble Lions

Monday morning bump. Polls close midnight tonight, wherever you are. Get them in folks.

Results should come out Tuesday morning, 10am.

...unless you're in FLA, when it'll be four days later.

Had a SE marathon yesterday (I even dug out the St Etienne Daho EP!). Hadn't listened to Good Humour in nearly a decade, and didn't remember half of it, but there are some really solid cuts on there. If I can work out how 30 tracks go into 20 ballot slots, a few of these cuts may well make it.

can't really vote in this (only ever really herd them on the radio and the only album i have is the greatest hits) but looking forward to the roll-out.

*sp

21 votes in for the tracks ballot and the top two still have the same number of points!

My poll is sent just now - better late than never.

I will get this in by midnight monday night in some other time zone, I promise.

Obviously, if "Avenue" doesn't win, this poll will have no credibility.

It's not as good as I remembered. 'This Is Radio Etienne' on the other hand ...

One thing that can easily slip my mind is how much I love the back half of So Tough, esp. "Conchita Martinez". Love the casual weirdness of this record.

My songs ballot ended up being:

FBA - 4
ST - 6
TB - 3
TB German Edition Bonus Tracks - 4
SOW - 1
F - 2

The above breakdown hints at why I love the German Edition of Tiger Bay so much.

I've been listening to W&M a lot this week and really like it but more as a whole than for its constituent parts (though that may change in time).

heads up to saint etienne fans: i noticed that the deluxe editions of good humor, sound of water, and continental are now out of print and going for major bux on ebay so i recommend snatching up the other deluxe editions before they go OOP as well. i've got FA, ST, TB, and finisterre. might have to get turnpike house, if the deluxe is worth it.

oops, never got myself a copy of the sound of water deluxe edition. pffft... it had like two extra tracks on it.

Did someone just run to Amazon and buy one of these? I was about to put So Tough (or was it Tiger Bay) in my cart for $17 and when i clicked add to cart it said it was no longer available. Picked up some of the others I was missing but still need to get a couple to finish the set.

Just voted.

Not so many deep cuts - my Year Zero for SE was Too Young To Die, a flawless record IMO (apart from Timmy Burgess ahem) I didn't really ever listen to the studio albums that made up that compilation until much later. I guess I only bought their studio albums from Good Humor onwards. Looking forward to hearing the fan club stuff I'm unaware of.

Cosign on the German edition of Tiger Bay (which reminds me, I forgot to vote for "Hate Your Drug"). Still haven't caught up with the last handful of albums - based on this thread, is "Teenage Winter" their "Come In From The Cold"?

Next poll we should do is people's favourite music critic liner notes for StEt albums.

Over The Border really is fantastic. I already think I might have put it too low.

sent!

I included three from W&M.

Next poll we should do is people's favourite music critic liner notes for StEt albums.

― Tim F, Monday, November 12, 2012 11:20 PM

Ha, there's more scans of these floating around than I'd imagined!

http://www.saintetiennedisco.com/fullhtml/full/tigergerman2.jpg

http://www.saintetiennedisco.com/greatesthtml/greatest/youngback.jpg

I love that Simon Price one - did he also do one for the original Tiger Bay or was it someone else?

The notes are usually fairly telling - like, Burchill and Reynolds basically just write what they would already write if they were writing reviews (which can mean different things e.g. equation like song descriptions for SR and almost no song descriptions for JB).

The So Tough one kind of annoys me in its cutesiness.

Just voted. I can't believe the amount of amazing tracks I hat to leave out! ...but 20 tracks it is.

Here's the breakdown:

FBA - 4
ST - 2
SOW - 1
WAM - 2
Other- 11

Officially the poll is closed. However if someone wants to sneak a last minute ballot in today I'm not going to play hardball.

As I'm busy over the next few days, I'll probably start the roll out on Sunday with the albums and then run the tracks next week.

FAO etc: I am assured that Bob S co-produced that Elizabeth City State record, which I too like very much indeed.

FBA - 3
ST - 3
TB - 3
GH - 2
F - 1
TFTH - 4
UTWH - 1
Other - 3

do you have to believe all that 'pop is holy' crap to 'get' SE?

no.

http://pinkie.ponychan.net/chan/files/src/135146554314.gif

Billy, with the gap between polls closing and results, I'm going to go ahead and recommend Pleasant Plains start the Hüsker Dü poll, if that's cool with you.

Fine by me, don't let me hold things up.