Saint Etienne - Home Counties

Hier sind meine - laut last.fm - Top 5 an Bands / Künstlern, die ich bisher noch nicht live gesehen habe (in Klammern der Platz in meiner last.fm-Statistik): 

1. The Smiths (8.)
2. Kent (13.)
3. Saint Etienne (36.)
4. The Beatles (41.)
5. The Raveonettes (62.)

Erkenntnisse: 1. Ich habe schon ziemlich viele Bands / Künstler live gesehen. 2. Zumindest bei den Rängen 3 und 5 besteht noch die Hoffnung, dass ich sie aus dieser Liste eliminieren kann. 

Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley und Pete Wiggs haben mit „Home Counties“ diesen Monat ihr neuntes Album veröffentlicht und vielleicht führt sie daher im Herbst eine Tournee nach Deutschland. Auf ihren 16 neuen Songs (dazu kommen 3 kurze Zwischenspiele) tänzeln Sant Etienne wie gewohnt zwischen nostalgischem Retro-Pop, eingängigem 80s Indiepop, Calypso-, Disco- und Northern Soul-Klängen, so dass einige Titel anfallen, die sich auch in einer, ihre 27-jährige Karriere umspannenden Setliste gut machen würden. „Take It All In“, „Out Of My Mind“ und „Heather“ sind meine persönlichen Highlights.

Das von Scott King gestaltete Artwork der aufklappbaren Doppel-LP mit seinen neun runden Aufklebern ist, wie beim Vorgänger „Words And Music By Saint Etienne“, herausragend. Die Platte kann teilweise mit den besten Saint Etienne Alben (chronologisch: „Tiger Bay“ (1994), „Good Humour“ (1998) und „Words And Music By Saint Etienne“ (2012)) mithalten und ist aktuell deren am besten bewertete (seit 2000) bei Metacritic (83/100).

Saint Etienne’s music always has a firm sense of time and place, somewhere around London, sometime between 1963 and yesterday. So it’s no surprise that the trio have finally written a whole album about the towns they grew up in. If the concept might seem a bit Brexit, the execution is flawless and winningly witty. Chirpy, unpretentious pop such as Out of My Mind rubs up against Dive’s excitable suburban disco thump and the sophisticated brilliance of Sweet Arcadia. It’s unclear why the sleevenotes append a list of “recent crimes in the home counties”, but it is obvious that this excellent album isn’t one of them.(The Guardian)

Pop perfection, on the other hand, is always close at hand when you are listening to a Saint Etienne record.We learn that the citizens of the Home Counties tend to go a little mad in and amongst the nicely manicured lawns and tree lined streets. “Heather”, for example, is a reference to the Enfield Poltergeist which was a hoax by a couple of young girls that brought major media attention into their life. It seems the inherent boredom of the simple existence in the shires leads its citizens to invent things to be passionate about, like debate train schedules in “Train Drivers with Eyeliner” or perhaps dream of a small suburb becoming the “Stockholm of the 90s” in “Whyteleafe”.Thematically the album's tight and the catchy hooks and danceable rhythms drip with just the right amount of psychedelic dance-pop sweetness. With infectious grooves, great musical phrases and smooth almost sultry vocals, it all makes for another Saint Etienne record that's extremely hard to dislike, especially when Sarah Cracknell beckons us to stay with her longer “Underneath the Apple Tree”. Not to worry miss Cracknell, we shall never leave your side so long as you continue to sing those sweet melodies in our ears as you have done for close to 30 years.(The Line Of Best Fit)

The key epic, however, is 'Sweet Arcadia', almost closing the album with spoken word reminiscence evoking images of a train passing out of the city and through into the outskirts, over gorgeous electric piano mellowness giving way to a flute-assisted menacing Jarre-y electronic undercurrent. It's one of their most beautiful and rich compositions yet, alongside the melancholic bell-ringing and strings of closer 'Angel of Woodhatch'.Home Counties is proof why Saint Etienne remain as special as ever. Their ability to whip magic out of the everyday and illuminate the missing pieces is something that few so-called bands-of-the-people have ever been capable of, and after nine albums, is as strong as ever.(The Quietus)