Since their debut album Foxbase Alpha came out in 1991, British band Saint Etienne have released eleven studio albums, and they’ve just announced another album is on it’s way.
The arrival of the band’s twelfth studio album comes as surprise to fans, as their most recent record The Night only arrived a few months ago. The band is set to release their new record International, but they’ve also revealed it will be their last.
In a statement the band said “they don’t feel like they want to go on forever and wanted to go out with a bang.”
Their new single Glad is the first offering from the new and final album. It’s a dance track co-written with Tom Rowland from The Chemical Brothers, which features Jez Williams of Doves playing guitar.
“The song is about taking pleasure in everyday things like nature and the outdoors when life is otherwise getting you down,” bandmember Pete Wiggs said.
They’ve also shared the track listing for International which will have 12 songs. The final track is appropriately titled The Last Time.
The album will feature, Glad, Dancing Heart, The Go Betweens, Sweet Melodies, Save It For a Rainy Day, Fade, Brand New Me, Take Me To The Pilot, Two Lovers, Why Are You Calling, He’s Gone and The Last Time.
The band formed when former music journalists Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs started making music together in the late 1980s. They originally envisaged themselves working with a variety of singers and early singles featured the vocals of Moira Lambert and Donna Savage. Once they met Sarah Cracknell, she became the permanent vocalist.
Their debut album Foxbase Alpha came out in 1991 and it’s included in the book 1001 Albums You must Hear Before You Die. It includes their radical rework of the Neil Young song Only Love Can Break Your Heart, which is sung by Moira Lambert.
Two years later they returned with So Tough featuring the sings Hobart Paving, Avenue and You’re in a Bad Way. The same year they released You Need a Mess of Friends to Stand Alone which was filled with their many b-sides and additional tracks.
1994’s Tiger Bay cleverly took folk influences and turned them into a stomping dance record influences by techno and dub sounds. The album is considered a folktronica classic.
Around the same time they worked with French singer Etienne Daho on the energetic pop tune He’s on the Phone.
They also worked with Massive Attack singer Shara Nelson on One Goodbye in Ten a track from her debut album.
When Kylie Minogue was exploring new directions after she left production trio Stock, Aitken and Waterman, she also collaborated with Stanley and Wiggs. Only one track from their sessions ended up being released, Kylie’s cover of the Saint Etienne song Nothing Can Stop Us was used as a B-side to Confide in Me.
Over the years Saint Etienne have released a steady stream of records, each exploring a slightly different facet of their sound. Good Humor came in 1998, followed by Sound on Water (2000), Finisterre (2002), Tales from the Turnpike House (2005), Words and Music by Saint Etienne (2012), Home Counties (2017), I’ve Been trying to Tell You (2021), and 2024’s The Night.
Band member Pete Wiggs chatted to OUTinPerth about their covid-era album I’ve Been Trying To Tell You which made innovative use of 90’s dance samples and was created while the band’s members were separated by lock downs.
The trio have also put out several soundtracks, compilations of additional tracks, and a highly acclaimed collection of remixes of their tunes called Casino Classics. It features remixes from Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin, Chemical Brothers, Andrew Weatherall, David Holmes, Underworld, Broadcast, Death in Vegas and many others.
In 2009 producer Richard X created a new version of the band’s debut album Foxbase Alpha dubbed Foxbase Beta. He used the original recordings to mix new versions of the the album’s tracks.
Saint Etienne also teamed up with Paul Van Dyk for Tell me Why (The Riddle) in 2000, and collaborated with Tim Burgess from The Charlatans for I Was Born on Christmas Day. The band have also remixed many other artists work given their touch to tracks by Kid Loco, The Boo Radleys, Edwyn Collins, Manic Street Preachers, The Drums, The Time & Space Machine and many others.
Saint Etienne may not be making any more music in the future, but there past works are immense and rich.
