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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