knife under pillow

I’m not sure about ‘GoodHumour’ ...it’s so seventies, which is okay, but, for the first time, reference gives way to tribute and then parody and the whole thing has a disconcerting air of self-conciousness. As Douglas Coupland’s glistening liner notes make clear this is an urban album (as opposed to the rural retreat of the previous ‘Tiger Bay’ and make no mistake, urban to Saint Etienne, thankfully, means something very different than it does to the rest of us) and also, on the surface, a European album, from it’s Swedish recording base to the tales from airport lobbies, but underneath, Saint Etienne, maybe deliberately trying to shed that dreaded cute British „powerhouse u.k“ icon status, seem more focused on both themes and sounds American.

And maybe this is the first problem, the lyrics. Okay, by nature, a lot of their songs lyrically teetered on the sweet edge of nothing, but even at their dreamiest („Avenue“ or „Pale Movie“) Saint Etienne seemed to be holding a knife under the pillow. Now we get „On the radio, she turned the disco down“ and „hanging round by the stadium/ drinking wine like a Bowery Bum“, i.e phonetically catchy, no doubt, but committing the worst offense of all lyrics, being actively lame! The sound is no great shakes either.

Second, as is typical with this band, several of the single B-Sides easily outclass anything on the album (both ‘Hit the Brakes’ and ‘I Don’t Want To Go Home’ are all-out classics, and featured in the most recent tour, hey, good enough to play, good enough for the album) and could easily been added to the somewhat meager album proper, as has been done with the Japanese version of ‘Good Humour’. I think even the hardcore fans (like me) are getting tired of the sheer amount of product which they must buy to keep up (i.e.’He’s On The Phone, six versions and counting!) But wait, some of the hooks are starting to sink in (‘Split Screen’ sounds like the fast go-go part of MacArthur Park, and that’s good !) and even the wall-paper-like text is beginning to crawl out of the grooves.

Continental is an exquisitely packaged Japaneseonly release, consisting of singles (including, yes, ‘He’s On The Phone’), B-Sides, album excerpts, the Gary Numan tribute (a punishing version of ‘Stormtrooper In Drag’) and five songs I’ve never seen anywhere else. And, in that weird logic which pervades the Saint-Etienne universe, it seems more satisfying and cohesive than the official new album. Maybe, like ‘Tiger Bay’, ‘Good Humour’ will grow on me further. Or maybe it just seems that Air, unintentionally I’m sure, have managed to steal some of Saint Etienne’s cool sleek thunder.