Like all semi-pop survivors, UK trio Saint Etienne have settled into a warm familiarity. A deep catalog-- one that shows more refinement than reinvention over the past 10 years-- means the band's stuck with its cult.
But that's actually got to be a pretty comforting idea in , as any overworked young buzz band approaching onstage breakdown before album two can tell you. Still: What about when Saint Etienne was new, maybe even a potential commercial prospect?
Listen to this new reissue of the band's debut album, 's Foxbase Alpha and you'll hear that, then as now, Saint Etienne made lovely, accessible music. But Foxbase is also far closer to capital-P pop than the band's recent refined blend of exuberance and melancholy. One theory for why Saint Et stiffed in the States is also a big part of the band's draw to many fans: The potentially limiting pleasures of Anglophilia.
So yes, Foxbase is littered with odd, musty little samples from odd, musty Olde England, and beats from the highly polished dancefloors of contemporary London. In fact, Pitchfork contributor Tom Ewing once wrote a wonderful essay that suggested Foxbase was best understood as a musical embodiment of the whole vibe of late 20th-century UK living, including, but not limited to, the mix of chic, glossy multi-cultural collisions and grubby, hospitably lived-in neighborhoods that made up London itself.
A brief break to get some conflict of interest stuff out of the way: A The aforementioned Mr. Ewing contributes an essay to the liner notes of the Foxbase reissue, and B Saint Etienne member Bob Stanley has contributed to Pitchfork. If either of those things stick in your craw while reading the more-or-less gush that follows, well, sorry. Another reason Saint Etienne never hit with a U. While the likes of Snap! Albeit one that can still be enjoyed by anyone not predisposed to hate the soft, the sunny, the lilting, the laid-back, and the mildly twee.
