Saint Etienne - Method of Modern Love

Saint Etienne, the best pop-band in the known universe, have a new single! This one is really new, not like the strangely ineffective remix of "Burnt Out Car" from last year.

Click here for your listening pleasure!

"Method of Modern Love" (not a cover of the Hall & Oats song from 1984, although I wouldn´t have minded if it was) is a very, and I mean VERY poppy song, bursting at the seams with Richard X´s great production skills.
It´s sparkling, upbeat and extremely catchy. There is still that certain touch of melancholy sprinkled over the production which is so typical for Saint Etienne and which will probably prevent it from becoming a big hit.

Despite some very prominent DX-7 bells, "Method of Modern Love" is NOT another 80s pastiche, which is very nice for a change. The amazing multi-tracking of Sara´s voice is definitely the highlight here. It´s also nearly a minute too long for being a perfect pop-single, but the wonderful vocal trickery at the end finishes the song on a very exuberant note.


It seems that Saint Etienne are really trying to break into the charts with this track. So much though, that it lead them to a very confusing release strategy. Apparently the new British chart rules are demanding a single to be domestically released only before the rest of the world is allowed to buy the physical single.
This in the age of the download! Go figure! At least there are plans for an international release later on.


The single will probably promote the release of "London Conversations", which is at least the third or fourth Best-of-Saint-Etienne compilation in their 19-year carrier. Pitchfork just did a great and interesting Interview with the groups Bob Stanley.

I was born on Christmas Day

Did you know they pulled the town hall down - I don´t think you´d recognize this town.

I´m so glad that I got just my pay - I was born on christmas day.

St. Etienne and Tim Burgess, "I was born on christmas day", 1993 live on "The Word".

Burnt Out Car

The papers
The photos
Things were found in the fire
A change of hair colour
Clairol baby-blond
I'm not quite used to it
It never takes too long
No makeup
No earrings
Nothing to identify me

Anniemalistic

Exactly three years ago I flew to Brighton to see Annie opening for St. Etienne. What a double whammy this should have been! Sadly Annie could not do the show because her equipment was delayed (Must have been British Airways!).
Her debut album "Annimal" was the best pop-record of this year and the simplicity of "Chewing Gum" still makes me all giddy.

She took her time to come up with a follow up and fellow Scandinavian Robyn is currently enjoying the international success that everybody predicted for Annie a few years ago-

Lots of "accidental" pre-release blunders made me aware of "Don´t stop" and it´s first single "Girlfriend" (or "Your girlfriend hates me", or the final "I know UR girlfriend hates me"). Leaked and pulled videos, contradicting information which single will be released, backing vocals by Girls Aloud which were then erased and so on. All this stuff record companies think is necessary to "really make the product".

So this is the Richard X produced first single and you´ll instantly see and hear that Annie sits a bit between the chairs with this one.

Musically its very close to "Chewing Gum". It´s a catchy, throw-away POP-song which should do well on the radio.
Visually Annie seems to go for a clean-cut, healthy, no-bullshit-look.
There is not much of a surprise here and I am missing a bit of the special "zing" that made Annie stand above the rest. After all Annie knows that ANNIE is not about the voice. It´s the whole package!
But hey, I am just a spoilt consumer! My attempts to do "clever-pop" died multiple, unspectacular deaths.

Sarah Cracknell/St. Etienne: The journey continues...acoustic

This is leading to a very nice video, featuring Sarah Cracknell of Saint Etienne recording an accoustic version of "The journey continues".
Without the slightly tacky beats of the original version with Mark Brown, the song becomes actually very good. Even the capricous operatic singing, which I found too phantom-of-the-opera-esque are a nice touch here.

However, at the end Sarah gives some new info about the future of St. Etienne, the best pop-band in the known universe:
A new Richard X produced single "This is tomorrow" will come out this year. It will be tied with a further greatest hits album, which will be the follow-up to "Too young to die" from the mid-nineties. (I thought that "Smash the System/Travel Edition" was a greatest hits too, but anyway...).
Furthermore their old albums will be re-released in a re-mastered and re-packaged form. AND as if this was not enough, an all new album will probably come out in the "not too distant future".

Not bad at all...

Sarah Cracknell: The journey continues...in a good way

Sarah Cracknell might have another hit in the british charts again soon, as she is singing on "The journey continues" by Mark Brown. The song, which is apparently used in a bank-advert in the UK, will be released in february. I am not really into it and she only appears in the video for one second. So here she is with the best pop-band in the known universe instead:
Saint Etienne: You´re in a bad way