Saint Etienne

Saint Etienne's attempt to top the charts failed to conquer the world, but song-for-song it may just be their best album. The bittersweet 1960s pop influences intermingle with an upbeat club vibe throughout, and the lovely Sarah Cracknell is in better voice than ever.

Saint Etienne make records the way Sixties starlets like Natalie Wood and Ann-Margret
made movies: The ingénue goes shopping for true love and the right lip liner, and comes
back home with both, just because she's That Girl. Sarah Cracknell is Saint Etienne's That
Girl, twirling and posing through the glossy Europop of her confreres Bob Stanley and Pete
Wiggs. Her slinky vocals and their keyboard hooks go together like a twin set an... More >

Modern love for the postmodern English--sad, kind, contained ("Mr Donut," "Been So Long"). (Grade - **)