Saint Etienne - London Conversations: The Best Of

by Eddie Robson

Saints preserve us

"The quality is consistent throughout, showing that they didn’t go rubbish just because Melody Maker stopped writing about them every other week."

Another Saint Etienne Best Of? They’ve already released ‘Too Young To Die’ and ‘Smash The System’, as well as the US-only ‘Travel Edition’. Is this a belated attempt to capitalise on Sarah Cracknell’s hit earlier this year? Whatever it is, St Et are fab and this package heralds a reissue programme for their whole back catalogue. So who’s complaining? Well…

This Best Of is described as ‘concise’ in the press bumf. It is 35 tracks long – a fact which another writer at a certain publication spent his entire review boggling over. Yes, 35 tracks is rather a lot for almost any band’s Best Of. It should be noted, however, that ‘London Conversations’ adopts the cream-of-the-crop/another-side structure of Radiohead’s recent Best Of, and does it better. And it seems that, although the original plan was to offer a choice of single-disc or double-disc editions, everyone looks to be selling the whole lot for a single-disc price.

Some Best Ofs do try your patience by sliding too much filler in between the actual Best bits, but the first disc of ‘London Conversations’ gives you the ‘pure’ Best Of, everything which made Saint Etienne the 1990s pop group it was OK for indie nerds to like. You get their sublime Italo-house cover of Neil Young’s ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’, the chiming glee-pop of ‘You’re In A Bad Way’, the complex murk of ‘Like A Motorway’, the camp Balearic disco of ‘He’s On The Phone’, the sophisticated easy-listening of ‘Sylvie’, the almost ambient, Underworld-ish ‘Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi)’, everything chronologically arranged.

In short, it’s essentially the same as the last couple of Best Ofs with a small number of tracks dropped and more added: unlike the Radiohead one it’s not stupidly weighted towards certain albums (although the late-90s/early-00s albums only get one track each). The quality is consistent throughout, showing that they didn’t go rubbish just because Melody Maker stopped writing about them every other week. The only gripe is that the radio edit of ‘Avenue’ has been used when there’s more than enough space to include the full version. If all you ever wanted was a single-disc St Et Best Of, you can pay a single-disc price for this and never listen to the second CD.

BUT there is very fine material on the second disc, including their glorious epic ‘How We Used To Live’, much-sought-after rarity ‘Lover Plays The Bass’ and the ever-wonderful ‘I Was Born On Christmas Day’. You get ‘Filthy’, where they do David Holmes before David Holmes was doing David Holmes, and the atmospheric ‘Finisterre’. You get all the singles that aren’t on the first disc (though it’s the Cracknell version of ‘Kiss And Make Up’, understandably), and a comprehensive overview of this great band.

Be the first to comment on this article