Saint Etienne
Home Counties
heavenly recordings
16 new songs of shimmering melancholy & poised pop written about a day in the life of the doughnut of shires that ring the capital.
It's punctuated by bursts of BBC radio to remind you what time it is, and all connected by train journeys - main lines, branch lines, commutes, escapes. It begins with 'SOMETHING NEW' & a teenage girl creeping through the front door after staying out all night. It stops at 'WHYTELEAFE' & imagines what might have happened if David Bowie had remained David Jones of Bromley, stuck with a desk job. It summons up the Enfield Poltergeist on 'HEATHER' & the anarchy of Essex's Plotland settlers on 'SWEET ARCADIA'. 'TRAIN DRIVERS IN EYELINER' wonders what the railway network might be like if it was organised according to ASLEF's taste in music. "the catchy hooks and danceable rhythms drip with just the right amount of psychedelic dance-pop sweetness" 8/10 - lineofbestfit
Tracklist
- The Reunion
- Something New
- Magpie Eyes
- Whyteleafe
- Dive
- Church Pew Furniture Restorer
- Take It All In
- Popmaster
- Underneath The Apple Tree
- Out Of My Mind
- After Hebden
- Breakneck Hill
- Heather
- Sports Report
- Train Drivers In Eyeliner
- Unopened Fan Mail
- What Kind Of World
- Sweet Arcadia
- Angel Of Woodhatch