The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project (aka Preachin’ about the Preachers if today’s selection sucks)

This is the first Smiths/Morrissey experience that I don’t like. I have Meat is Murder on vinyl and some deluxe The Queen is Dead thing in my mp3 collection. The two Morrissey albums were quite enjoyable despite the twat singing.

This one starts off circusy. Like the first four songs were legitimately not good to me - campy and weird. Stop Me… was like the Smiths turned up to 12. Currently on Last Night and it is a slog. I’m gonna finish up later.
 
Lee Newman said:
This is the first Smiths/Morrissey experience that I don’t like. I have Meat is Murder on vinyl and some deluxe The Queen is Dead thing in my mp3 collection. The two Morrissey albums were quite enjoyable despite the twat singing.

This one starts off circusy. Like the first four songs were legitimately not good to me - campy and weird. Stop Me… was like the Smiths turned up to 12. Currently on Last Night and it is a slog. I’m gonna finish up later.
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Can understand this take. I always felt they tried to un-Morrissey his vocals on this album, only making them more annoying to some people. I always thought that he sounded like his sinuses were congested on this album.
 
I love Saint Etienne. They were on the soundtrack to every road trip I had in the early/mid-90s, and everytime I hear the intro to "Nothing Can Stop Us" I'm there again: In the car on the road to Roskilde festival in 1994 with whole life in front of me, hair in the wind and gazing at the sun...I know, nostalgia is a dangerous drug and my memories are just a mere illusion of what I was and what actually happened back then.
Anyway, listening to Foxbase Alpha today is a whole other experience. Saint Etienne were eletronic dance pop with an indie edge, at least in theory. The difference in sound between Sound Etienne and chart topping dance-pop in the early 90s actually ain't that big though. They're slightly more detached and cool but still very much pop. Culturally however, there was a rift between the kids who picked up "The Sign" by Ace of Base and those who dug Saint Etienne. (A friend of mine once got a bit mean and took this image a step too far, when he called Saint Etienne "standard eurotechno for the cool kids". I prefer the moniker "dance-pop for thinking people". I digress.)
It wasn't really until 1995 and "He's on the Phone" that Saint Etienne got a crossover mainstream hit, which they then kinda blew by not making any kind of follow up for many years. But when I listen to their first three albums (all brilliant) today, I can't help thinking that the world is and always have been a pretty unfair and fucked up place, when this didn't take over the world while the likes of Ace of Base, Whigfield and Haddaway dominated the charts.
I think Tiger Bay is my favourite Saint Etienne album, but their story and sound started here, so Foxbase Alpha essential in understanding how the early 90s sounded, both on the charts and in the underground clubs. Such a wonderful album!
 
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dbarila said:
I cannot figure out why this band name and half these songs sound so familiar to me. I don't remember ever listening to Saint Etienne before. I'm really digging what I hear so far though.
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They’re named after a French football club which takes its name from the city it is in maybe?

They had a song on pretty much every indie compilation I ever owned in the mid 90s too.
 
Whiteout75 said:
I love Saint Etienne. They were on the soundtrack to every road trip I had in the early/mid-90s, and everytime I hear the intro to "Nothing Can Stop Us" I'm there again: In the car on the road to Roskilde festival in 1994 with whole life in front of me, hair in the wind and gazing at the sun...I know, nostalgia is a dangerous drug and my memories are just a mere illusion of what I was and what actually happened back then.
Anyway, listening to Foxbase Alpha today is a whole other experience. Saint Etienne were eletronic dance pop with an indie edge, at least in theory. The difference in sound between Sound Etienne and chart topping dance-pop in the early 90s actually ain't that big though. They're slightly more detached and cool but still very much pop. Culturally however, there was a huge rift between the kids who picked up "The Sign" by Ace of Base and those who dug Saint Etienne. (A friend of mine once got a bit mean and took this image a step too far, when he called Saint Etienne "standard eurotechno for the cool kids". I prefer the moniker "dance-pop for thinking people". I digress.)
It wasn't really until 1995 and "He's on the Phone" that Saint Etienne got a crossover mainstream hit, which they then kinda blew by not making any kind of follow up for many years. But when I listen to their first three albums (all brilliant) today, I can't help thinking that the world is and always have been pretty unfair and fucked up, when this didn't take over the world while the likes of Ace of Base, Whigfield and Haddaway dominated the charts.
I think Tiger Bay is my favourite Saint Etienne album, but their story and sound started here, so Foxbase Alpha essential in understanding how the early 90s sounded, both on the charts and in the underground clubs. Such a wonderful album!
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100% this. For the me big differences between bands like St Etienne and other big dance acts was that SE tended to be very open about their influences.

Enjoyable for a work listen. Bit chill but propulsive which works well for me.
 
I’d put this in a similar bucket to Everything But The Girl and a couple of others I can’t think of. Hated this kind of music as a teenager in the mid 90s. Now I’m sorta ambivalent to it and wish it no ill, not listening to it by choice but if it’s your thing more power to you.
 
Ambient music in the early nineties was pretty cool because it worked on the dance floor very well and made for good at home listening as well.

These guys weren’t really ambient but definitely met the above criteria and was down tempo enough to be chill.
 
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