Loaded Album of the week
By Fred Spanner
Saint Etienne: International ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Let's face it: Sarah Cracknell’s voice could read out a Wetherspoons menu and still make you swoon. After 35 years of being cooler than your mate’s older sister, Saint Etienne are finally hanging up the glitterball. Their last ‘Goodbye’ is International.
Straight off the bat, opener “Glad” (with Tom Rowlands from The Chemical Brothers and a Jez from Doves throwing in riffs) sounds like someone’s spiked your Britpop memories with disco vitamins. Euphoric, arms-in-the-air stuff. The sort of tune you’d stick on before a night out, back when WKD counted as exotic.
The rest of the album is a passport full of stamps. Vince Clarke brings the synth wizardry, Erol Alkan drags them into sweaty basement club territory, and Confidence Man gatecrash like that couple at the party who never, ever stop dancing. It’s glossy and shamelessly over the top.
It’s not all feather boas and fizzy lager. Closer “The Last Time” is proper lump-in-the-throat stuff. Not because it’s tragic, but because it’s Saint Etienne saying: “That’s your lot, lads. We’re off.”
International is a proper leaving do. The tunes are big, the guestlist’s glamorous, and the champagne’s on ice. Saint Etienne bow out with a wink, a shimmy, and just enough nostalgia to make you miss ‘em already.
Check out our Sarah Cracknell interview.