Finisterre (Saint Etienne)
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| Finisterre | |||||
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| Studio album by Saint Etienne | |||||
| Released | 30 September 2002 | ||||
| Recorded | 2002 | ||||
| Genre | House Ambient Techno Alternative rock Electronica |
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| Length | 46:56 | ||||
| Label | Mantra Records | ||||
| Producer | Saint Etienne, Mr Joshua, Ian Catt | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Saint Etienne chronology | |||||
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Finisterre is an album by the British pop band Saint Etienne. It was released by Mantra Records in 2002.
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[edit] Commentary
Finisterre was Saint Etienne's sixth proper album on world wide release after the sparse instrumentation on "Sound of Water" and pre-empts the warmer tones on their next album, Tales from Turnpike House. This album marked a return to the inclusion of vocal interludes between songs as last heard on their album "So Tough" and a more angular, electronic sound, particularly on tracks such as "Action," "Shower Scene," and "New Thing". "Language Lab," "Summerisle," and "Stop and Think It Over" recall the ambient style of the previous three albums.
The vocal interludes were supplied by Michael Jayston's narration as featured in the film released to accompany the album, also called "Finistere". The film was directed by Paul Kelly and was born out of visuals used to accompany certain tracks from the album shown during their live shows. The film debuted at a sold-out show in October 2002 at the Royal Festival Hall on London's Southbank, and was re-released to select screens in 2005. It is currently available on DVD. The album sleeve features a photograph of the East London towerblock Ronan Point shortly after it collapsed in 1968 with the loss of 4 lives.
In an October 2002 review of the album on the Pitchfork website, Nitsuh Abebe wrote: "(Saint Etienne records) are... like all great pop records... about perfectly articulating the passion of someone's everyday life. The big comeback on Finisterre's part is that they're tugging those strings again, confidently. The highlight is "B92", where a sly synthetic strut and determined hook load the "music is our weapon" trope into a triple-reference refrain: "The boys are back in town/ And nothing can stop us now/ This is our wall of sound." These moments are all over the record: in the plaintive chorus of "Action", in the clear-eyed momentum of "Shower Scene". If there's any criticism to be made it's only that the group doesn't let some tracks run free enough to back that up: "Action" and "New Thing" are just begging for the bigger kick drums that would turn them into flat-out stompers. We'll be waiting for the remixes. Finisterre closes with its title track... Around it comes exactly what Saint Etienne are best at - the soft-touch pop groove, the plush arrangement, and Cracknell talking, as ever, about details so local and personal they seem almost embarrassing to address on a record. Saint Etienne have been "back" before, but this time-- this time it sounds like they're really back.
[edit] Track listing
- "Action" – 4:45
- "Amateur" – 3:39
- "Language Lab" – 3:13
- "Soft Like Me" – 4:24
- "Summerisle" – 3:08
- "Stop and Think It Over" – 3:57
- "Shower Scene" – 4:26
- "The Way We Live Now" – 4:29
- "New Thing" – 4:11
- "B92" – 3:23
- "The More You Know" – 3:32
- "Finisterre" – 4:33
[edit] Singles
[edit] Action - July 2002
[edit] CD One
- Action (Radio Edit) – 3:52
- Anderson – 3:46
- 7 Summers – 5:06
[edit] CD Two
- Action (Mr Joshua Edit) – 3:30
- Action (DJ Tiësto Remix) – 6:52
- Action (Laub Remix) – 4:27
[edit] Soft Like Me - 2003
[edit] Seven inch
- Soft Like Me
- Gimp Crisis
[edit] CD One
- Soft Like Me
- Time and Tide
- Shock Corridor
[edit] CD Two
- Soft Like Me (Mr Joshua Mix)
- Abby I Hardly Knew You
- Soft Like Me (K.O.W. Radiophonic Rework)
[edit] Shower Scene - 2002 (Spain only)
[edit] CD
- Shower Scene
- New Thing
- Time and Tide
- Shock Corridor
The 12" release omits "Shock Corridor"
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