Even with kitschy-cool groups like the Cardigans and Pizzicato Five putting a saccharine-sweet, Sixties-pop spin on radio waves in recent times, eight-year veterans of synth-girl-pop St. Etienne can't get a break. But with a four-year sabbatical, some hardcore corporate experience, a new label and an actual band, the trio have their skates on and are ready to ride into the mainstream. |

"We decided to take a year off, you see, and a year turned into a bit longer," singer Sarah Cracknell sarcastically reports from the posh digs of New York's Paramount Hotel. Their extended vacation sparked whispers of a breakup back home (though few took note in the States). When bandmates Pete Wiggs and Bob Stanley took office space to head up the Emidisc label (which boasts British chart-toppers Kenickie and Denim), and Cracknell released a solo album that beelined to nowhere, the flames of rumor were fanned.

But halfway into their hiatus, St. Etienne were secretly laying down tracks for their most discoed-up, candy-coated and organic effort, Good Humor. "We actually finished the album about eighteen months ago, but we didn't want to put it out at the same time as Oasis," quips Cracknell. "We're both on Creation [their UK label], and the whole company goes into Oasis mode."

Recording in the polar reaches of Sweden, and snagging Cardigans producer Tore Johnansson, St. Etienne worked backward to refresh their synthetic sound. "We had this brave idea that we wanted the whole album to sound like Charlie Brown. You know, the instrumental bits," half-jokes Wiggs. "And we'd written a couple of songs, and we realized in the studio that they sounded like they needed a band." While most rock outfits lay down the skeleton of a song on guitar or piano, St. Etienne wrote on synthesizers, and then translated their efforts to the minds and talents of the Tamborine Studios house band. Says Wiggs, "We always do things the hard way."

By shedding the preciousness of previous projects, St. Etienne have maintained their signature creamy-girl-pop-retro-chic sound, but emerge a more modern and intelligent group. Cracknell's voice (for which she's suffered much criticism) has developed into a smooth, sweetly seductive soprano, and the samples have been almost entirely replaced with real musicians. "It's a bit more rock and roll" according to Wiggs, and definitely "cleaner sounding" in Cracknell's mind. Whatever modest remarks the Brits may have about their fourth album, it's undeniably a record that has you singing along after one track -- especially if that track is the glimmering dance single, "Sylvie."

All of which must mean that perennial homebodies St. Etienne are finally heading to America. "We're just waiting for the right time," says Cracknell. Perhaps by next summer, with yet another album on the racks, the time will be nigh.

HEIDI SHERMAN(September 16, 1998)