‘The Night’ is billed as Saint Etienne’s twelfth studio album, which may seem like a relatively paltry return for a band that will celebrate thirty-five years of activity next year by releasing a thirteenth in close succession. But these bald statistics, like ‘The Night’ itself, only tell part of the story.
Saint Etienne, collectively and individually, is a much more expansive venture than a dozen albums and it is beyond the albums that the full story unravels in the films, the soundtracks, the fan club releases, the remixes, the DJing, the b-sides, the compilations, the books and other associated projects.
Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs have instead been ever-presents, playing with popular music culture in all its forms from a singular and very English perspective for over three decades.
In this context, ‘The Night’ is quite far removed from other Saint Etienne albums and from pop music more generally. Sonically it is a cousin once removed of 2021’s ‘I’ve Been Trying To Tell You’ but it perhaps has more in common with the b-sides of their early singles or 1999’s ‘Places to Visit’ EP. More widely, the accompanying press release locates it in the vicinity of The KLF’s ‘Chill Out’ and Talk Talk’s ‘Spirit of Eden’, but it is more urban than the former and more elegantly tuneful and less stoned than the latter.
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If that is what ‘The Night’ is not, then it is also worth contemplating what it is. This journey is not that of a young person’s hedonistic nocturnal activities but one that resonates more with middle aged interests, comforts and anxieties. It is mostly downbeat and beautiful, the recurring rainfall punctuating a mix of mood music with spoken and sung parts. Cracknell has never sung better than on ‘Preflyte’ and ‘The Nightingale’. Other highlights include ‘Gold’ and the sub two-minute single, ‘Half Light’, though it seems wrong to highlight individual tracks when the real strength is in the sum of the parts. It is never not lovely, and ‘Ellar Carr’ might be the first (and last) song named after a little-known Yorkshire location that mentions a cantilever stand. And how Saint Etienne is that?
Introverted and understated but not underwhelming, ‘The Night’ rewards repeated listens and while it is unlikely to provide the viral moment that returns Saint Etienne to their rightful place in the charts or troubles new audiences, it will more than satisfy the committed and may, with the benefit of an even longer lens, be among their greatest achievements.
8/10
Words: John Williamson
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