New LP: Saint Etienne | The Night

On their 12th record, the trio have again met us where we're at.

Dec 15, 2024

Cover photo courtesy of Heavenly Recordings

Longtime readers may recall that I reviewed 100 new (to me) records last year. Because ~~I’m a glutton for punishment~~ love music, I’m doing it again this year. This is the latest in the series.

Good morning!

Today we’re taking a look at the latest from On Repeat Records favorites Saint Etienne.

Whether it was pop or dancier tracks or the mellow serenity of 2021’s I’ve Been Trying to Tell You, Saint Etienne has always had a knack for making the right record at the right time.

For their 12th release, the trio is again meeting the moment and their listeners where they’re at.

Designed to be an antidote to the noisy chaos of everyday life, The Night is a record meant to be experienced as much as it is to be listened to. It’s something you do, not something playing in the background while you’re busy with something else. According to member Bob Stanley, “You could think of it as one continuous, single track. It’s definitely a headphone album.”

The record plays almost like a series of vignettes intended to put you in specific places, a bit like the random thoughts that cycle through your mind just before you fall asleep or a fond memory. With its bits of conversation at the start, opener Settle In evoked coming out of the rain to join a friend at a bustling neighborhood café. You know the kind; it’s got a bell on the door and a coat rack right there. Other tracks painted scenes like coming home after a long night out (or a long day at work). It’s sonic hygge.

Lead single Half Light was on one of our recent playlists. With its gorgeous waves of synths—and is that harpsichord I hear?—it’s sure to be on there again in the not-too-distant future.

Prefltye is about letting go. Vocalist Sarah Cracknell is at her finest here: understated, bittersweet, and resonant. The whole thing is both gorgeous and heart-wrenching.

I mean:

All the choices you will make
And the risks that you will take
It's your life, for goodness sake
Gonna make a few mistakes
It's a joy to see you grow
But I'll miss you when you go and fly away

Oof.

It took this to be about a parent grappling with the idea that their kids are grown and out in the world…which is looming large on the horizon for me. YMMV. As I type this, my youngest is about 10 feet away playing with Gizmo, and the idea that he’ll be grown and out of the house in a few short years is a lot.

The production here is economical—the breakbeats and dance elements of previous records are largely absent. In many places, the band has added elements that give the record almost a field recording vibe. In some ways, it picks up where I’ve Been Trying to Tell You left off, heading further toward the ambient, but less with samples and more with snatches of things like rain.

Another article I read name-checks Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden, which ok; that's fair, though I'd maybe say it’s more urbane than what Mark Hollis & co. gifted us.

The record ends the way it began, reminding us on Alone Together that “Time flies / it slips and slides.” Ain't that the truth?

If the poppier and dance floor-ready work tracks from their earlier resonated with me in my teens and 20s, this much more understated sound does the same today as I hurtle headlong into middle age.

In 1991, Fox Base Alpha's sophisticated cool was a much-needed indie dance/pop counterbalance to the hardcore records I was listening to. In the press release for The Night, Bob Stanley says this album will “gently wash away the stuff in your head that keeps you awake at 2 a.m.”

In 2024, isn’t that something we can all use?