Saint Etienne - Home Counties [New Album 2017]

I still can't get into this album - some nice bits but everything feels been there done that.

Did anyone also pre-order one of the new "dive" singles? Are they really limited to 1000 copies? Bought mine after some days on sale and it seems strange that it hadn't sold out before that. You might think there are 1000 loons left worldwide.
 
I haven't bought the new album yet either and I'm normally a release day person with them. I've only played it on Spotify once, this is a shocking state of affairs.
 
I like this MORE AND MORE AND MORE

But then my favourite ET album is SOUND OF WATER so WHAT THE FUCK DO I KNOW?
 
London Like a Distant Sun and Obvious are both quite charming. I've been a bit up and down on Dive but I think it benefits from the tightening up that the radio edit gives. Haven't got to the remixes yet...
 
I'm listening to the remixes for the first time as we speak and don't get the "OMG IT'S LIKE THEY'VE GONE BACK TO 1979" declarations of the various Facebook groups, but they're nice enough...
 
I will give them a spin tomorrow.

If they get to doing another single surely it must be Out of My Mind, I don't really understand why it wasn't released first.
 
"Dive" should have been the lead single really, but "Heather" was wasted as a buzz track, really. It's definitely my favourite thing from the album. "Magpie Eyes" was the mistake, not that much would have made any difference to anything, I guess...
 
I heard 'Dive' today for the first time (I'm a bit late to the Et party with this album). It's ridiculously Baccara :disco: is that what they were going for with the 70's VIBE?
 
Oh it's QUITE GOOD! I'm half tempted to buy the album now (although I'd have gone for a couple of tiddly old dears in flamenco dresses doing the cha cha cha at the tatty end of the pier in the video :disco:)

 
The video is a total Brexit fantasy, I guess it goes well with an album called HOME COUNTIES.
 
BUY THE ALBUM! HOORAY! ET UP!

(Though "Dive" is ENTIRELY unrepresentative of it :D )
 
I can't be doing with all that muggy grinning in the video. No one should be that happy.

The mixes are fine, the best is the first which is basically an extended version with some extra percussive stuff and additional vocal bits, I think. I don't imagine I'll go back to them very much really.

Sheena said:
"Dive" should have been the lead single really, but "Heather" was wasted as a buzz track, really. It's definitely my favourite thing from the album. "Magpie Eyes" was the mistake, not that much would have made any difference to anything, I guess...
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Yes they are obviously playing to the fanbase at this point but Magpie Eyes, while fine on the album, is just too dowdy a first single by their standards. Heather is so much more interesting, I agree.
 
Most interesting Et news of the week appears to be the hint that "I Love To Paint" is about to get a vinyl release, according to a picture Martin Kelly posted on Facebook of a master vinyl bearing the catalogue number of the original CD release (HVNLP9).

He also said to expect another compilation at some point soon, though, which is a little bit more :manson: - able
 
I somehow missed that they re-released the 2 cd deluxe editions of their albums - just ordered the 2cd "foxbase alpha" from 2016/7 for 9 Euros on Amazon Germany.

Does anyone know if they use the same remaster for the audio or a new one? If the new remasters have even worse sound quality now I might hold out completing the collection and go for the higher prices of the older ones.
 
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Pretty sure it's the same remaster, but they have fixed the glitch with "Blofeld Bildings" on the "Sound of Water" deluxe.

The "Foxbase Alpha" one I think was reissued some time ago and was not part of this new lot- it basically never went out of print. The others are back, though, yes.
 
Thanks for that post - yes it seems the "foxbase alpha" re-release is from December 2016 while the others are from summer 2017.

Another difference I noted is that according to Discogs the tracklists don't indicate anymore whether a track on CD 2 has been "previously unreleased".
 
I guess because they already had been on the first set...
 
Ooh, Apple Music has thrown up a "Saint Etienne Deep Cuts" playlist this morning. It's nothing I haven't heard before but it's a really nice little collection of their lesser known stuff.
 
So I'm currently running an ALL TIME SAINT ETIENNE SINGLES SURVEY type of affair through the Saint Etienne Disco page on Facebook. Thanks to Bob and the band's Twitter retweeting it, we've got nearly 250 votes so- feel free to join in:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Y9DZBR5

I'll do a big countdown type thing once it finishes, Y'KNOW...
 
Christian said:
That was virtually IMPOSSIBLE

Talk about a fight to the death at (almost) EVERY TURN
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So it's proving for many.

The results so far are FASCINATING. A predictable #1 began to run away with it, but it's closed RIGHT UP now and there's two songs in the running- the other I wouldn't have REMOTELY considered...

I'm hoping we can get ridiculous amounts of votes and I can persuade Bob to COMMENT or something on the results :disco:
 
I'm sure I could deliver an entirely different Top 10 and be entirely on board with it :D

I made sure I went with my PERSONAL faves though, despite loving the CLASSICS.
 
Christian said:
I'm sure I could deliver an entirely different Top 10 and be entirely on board with it :D

I made sure I went with my PERSONAL faves though, despite loving the CLASSICS.
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Oh as it SHOULD BE. Definitely your personal faves. That's the whole POINT!

I voted for something only one other person has voted for so far...
 
Did I vote for SOFT LIKE ME? I MIGHT HAVE DONE JUST BECAUSE EVERYONE ELSE HATES IT
 
I'm glad this survey has made me PROPERLY loon out to Saint Etienne this week as well.
 
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