saint etienne

I don't know much Saint Etienne besides Fox-Base Alpha, "Avenue", Good Humor and the sick remix of El Perro Del Mar's "Walk On By". Which album should I go to next?

So Tough
Finisterre
Words and Music

We Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone is pretty strong. I'd pick So Tough, then A Mess of Help.

Can't really go wrong with 'So Tough'.

Parts of all the other records are fine too. 'Tiger Bay' has a couple of Underworld-assisted tracks that are fantastic, especially "Like a Motorway".

Still think one of their finest moments is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pBaIK3EIjk

I assembled a best-of a few days ago.

my first one was Good Humor, which feels like a stylistic outlier in their catalog but at the time was for me very eye-opening, and it remains an important record in my life. It's not necessarily my favorite release of theirs, I'd probably put the first three + Words and Music above it now. But I like its dry-sounding yet warmhearted Euro pop.

Would be fun to poll their b-sides and non-album tracks... so many amazing songs. Archway People, Madeleine, Clark Co. Record Fair, Star, Burnt Out Car, Hate Your Drug...

Controversial (?) :
https://noisey.vice.com/en_ca/article/rank-your-records-saint-etienne-bob-stanley

Not controversial. Just wrong.

good humor is my fav record of theirs also

Surprised "Fox base Alpha"is so low down, but then again I prefer the "Fox base Beta' remix version so hey hey (wtm)..

Foxbase and So Tough being so low is really surprising to see. I'm disappointed he put Sound Of Water so high up, that's their only below average album for me.

his take makes sense, though I disagree.

top tier: foxbase, so tough, tiger bay, good humor, fairfax high, mess of help, continental
middle tier: finisterre, turnpike house, words and music, fairy tales
bottom tier: sound of water

I'd have put Tiger Bay up higher, but reading that I can see why..

Oh, and "I love to paint" has been good to me..

All kinds of wrong. I'd more or less flip his ranking

My order would currently be..

1. So Tough
2. Foxbase Alpha
3. Tales From Turnpike House
4. Words & Music
5. Tiger Bay
6. Good Humor
7. Finisterre
8. Sound Of Water

Foxbase Alpha
So Tough
*you need a mess of help to stand alone*
Tiger Bay
Good Humor
Sound of Water
Words and Music
Finistere
Tales from Turnpike
--

One of the odd things about that was we went to clear the samples we put in between tracks, and it was almost impossible to clear any American samples. The only thing we could was Rush let us use the sample from "The Spirit of Radio." They were very kind and said, "We can't imagine why you'd want to ruin your very beautiful song with a horrible guitar sound."

wow I've been working my way thru their entire discography and "Sound of Water" is GREAT, I think I like it more than "Good Humor"?

also ugh there are so so so many overlapping compilations! At this point the 2nd discs on all the Deluxe Editions are prob the definitive way to go, no?

Good Humour isn't a favorite. I also prefer SOW and – better – Finisterre.

Sound of water is amazing!!

Yeah Stevie, the deluxe editions mop everything up pretty nicely

I don't think fan club discs "I love to paint" and "built on sand" were incorporated, though

looks like they're about to re-release all the deluxe editions, too. which is good because they're getting expensive in the secondhand market.

oh thank god

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/07/saint-etienne-10-of-the-best

the first 3 major fan club comps were re-released in their "boxette" set a few years back. i think their xmas songs were all compiled too, in 'a glimpse of stocking'.

i want to fill in the gaps on my deluxe sets. i've got foxes alpha/so tough/tiger bay/finisterre. the good humor one, not sure if i need that...i have the original 2-cd release w/fairfax high, iirc the deluxe is the same?

shit, i need to sell my duplicates real quick then

v strange that the deluxe Tiger Bay edition doesn't have "He's On The Phone" or "Grovely Road" from the superior 1996 Creation Records rerelease

Yeah last year I decided I finally need to get those deluxes (and everything else) and realized a number of them only go for crazy money. (Thankfully I had the cash; yay freelance work.)

deluxe edition of good humor has 4 or 5 more tracks beyond what's on fairfax high, yeah.

v strange that the deluxe Tiger Bay edition doesn't have "He's On The Phone" or "Grovely Road" from the superior 1996 Creation Records rerelease

― he not like the banana (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, June 7, 2017 9:04 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well idk how much the band had to do with that configuration so it makes sense to me; it makes an already-disjointed record way more disjointed, much as it's my preferred sequence

v strange that the deluxe Tiger Bay edition doesn't have "He's On The Phone" or "Grovely Road" from the superior 1996 Creation Records rerelease

They're on the Continental deluxe edition.

oh you meant it's weird that they're not on the bonus disc, sorry steve

ahhhh I see, it's "Groveley" on Continental and "Grovely" on Tiger Bay and it looked like it was literally only available on 1996 Tiger Bay and on no other compilation or deluxe ed

tbh with 2-3 versions of each album I like the idea of the deluxe eds presenting a "canonical" sequence on disc 1 and putting all of the other additional songs from other territories on disc 2

i guess i missed the US tour announcement

https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/03/saint-etienne-announce-first-us-tour-in-five-years/

still tix for NYC

why u hate third coast saint etienne, houston and new orleans want to love you

ugh I'm just going to delete everything I have when I get home and slsk all of the deluxe editions, Boxette, and A Glimpse of Stocking

WAIT HOLY SHIT HOME COUNTIES IS OUT ALREADY!??!?!?!

don't forget foxbase beta it's beautiful

Does anyone else have the urge to buy certain already-owned discs when seen used, to somehow correct the crime that these discs have been given up for cheap? The rarer Blue Nile singles and AMC (Johnny Mathis' Feet single w/ bonus live disc) cause this itch. Pertinent here, since as a Seattle resident, I regularly see the 2cd Sub Pop version of Good Humor with the Fairfax High bonus cd. Saw one last week at Easy Street for $4. Oh, the humanity.

don't forget foxbase beta it's beautiful

Yup. And if you can, find the 2-disc version of that too!

WAIT HOLY SHIT HOME COUNTIES IS OUT ALREADY!??!?!?!

Dude you missed the thread!

Saint Etienne -- Home Counties

There's some good stuff on the deluxe editions but they're boomy and over-compressed; Sound of Water particularly suffers, a lot of the subtle layered sounds get hammered into mush. "Dilworth's Theme" at the end of F.A. has lost its pleasantly ghostly "recorded surreptitiously on a Dictaphone outside the rehearsal room" quality.

"Blofeld Buildings" on disc 2 of S.O.W. has the music starting about a minute earlier in one channel, turning it into an overlapping mess. You'll need Boxette for the proper version (unless they correct it on the re-release). If you're a completist (bit of a futile but fun endeavor), the U.S.-only tracks from Turnpike didn't turn up on the deluxe version, nor did the Wooden Hills bonus disc songs.

Easy Street has to sell them for cheap because who in their right mind goes to West Seattle? I can get music shipped to my house with less stress and effort than driving to West Seattle demands. I think I also bought my 2CD copy very cheap second hand. Also picked up the Sub Pop 2LP best of compilation that came out a while back. Shame about the art on that one though. It's pretty shit.

Do we have a source on the deluxe ed rereleases?

https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Water-Saint-Etienne/dp/B06XSYJ35F/

Some available June 23rd, some June 30th. I can see Amazon getting one wrong, but not seven or eight... everything from Foxbase through Turnpike is listed.

don't forget the two disc deluxe editions of Words and Music, nor the tour only edition of Words and Music.

also Nice Price, their rarities fanclub comp that is not included in Boxette.

christ i keep forgetting about the U.S. release version of Turnpike House...so the two disc deluxe version doesn't have the songs from that? i'm totally okay with spending more money on them, I want them to have chill and moneyed existences.

Nice Price is just a bunch of demos and alternate versions, not essential unless you're a devoted fan.