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Saint Etienne Sound of Water [Japan Bonus Tracks] Release Date: 2000 06 22 Label: EMI Rating:

Ten years on, Saint Etienne found themselves at a bit of a crossroads. They had long ago stopped having hits in the U.K., settling into a cult audience in both their homeland and the U.S. There isn't an inherent problem with having a cult audience, but cult bands often have the stigma of being on the cutting edge. At the start of their career, Saint Etienne was on the cutting edge. Their first two albums were at the foundation of many '90s pop trends, including the revival of swinging '60s London, the unabashedly melodic bent of Brit-pop, the fascination for forgotten easy-listening artifacts from the '60s, the kaleidoscopic blend of '60s sound and '90s sensibility later heard on Beck records, plus the insurgent twee-pop of the late '90s. For their tenth anniversary, they decided to reclaim the cutting edge with Sound of Water. The album strove to keep the concise, song-oriented focus of Good Humour, while expanding the horizons of their music to focus on abstract, dreamy, electronic sounds. There are moments of pop pleasure here, surrounded by spare, languid electronica sections, vaguely reminiscent of the High Llamas. This is where maturity pays off. Saint Etienne never lingers too long in one area, letting the album flow gracefully between these two extremes and placing some very good pop melodies along the way. There are no knockout singles on par with those from So Tough or Tiger Bay, but Saint Etienne has pretty much given up on the pop charts, preferring to concentrate on cohesive, stronger albums. That may mean that Sound of Water simply isn't as exciting as their earlier work, and it also means that there isn't a good gateway song to the record. But that's OK, since with repeated plays, Sound of Water reveals itself as a first-rate effort. [A Japanese version was also released that contained bonus tracks.] Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Tracks:

	Title	Composer	Time
1	Late Morning	Cracknell, Stanley, Wiggs	4:13
2	Heart Failed (In the Back of a Taxi)	Cracknell, Stanley, Wiggs	3:41
3	Sycamore	Cracknell, Stanley, Wiggs	3:47
4	Don't Back Down	Cracknell, Stanley, Wiggs	4:49
5	Just a Little Overcome	Cracknell, Stanley, Wiggs	3:40
6	Boy Is Crying	Cracknell, Stanley, Wiggs	3:52
7	Aspects of Lambert	Cracknell, Stanley, Wiggs	3:30
8	Downey, Ca	Cracknell, Stanley, Wiggs	4:24
9	How We Used to Live	Cracknell, Stanley, Wiggs	9:02
10	Place at Dawn	Cracknell, Stanley, Wiggs	1:48
11	Red Setter [*]	Cracknell, Stanley, Wiggs	3:27
12	Rose Neck [*]	Cracknell, Stanley, Wiggs	3:25
13	Thank You [*]	Cracknell, Stanley, Wiggs	4:26
14	Shoot Out the Lights [*]	Cracknell, Stanley, Wiggs	4:06

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