Continental Import by Saint Etienne

Continental Import

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Continental Import

Reader Reviews
I was excited to find this import, and I purchased it basically for one track: "Stormtrooper in Drag." This ear-opener was the only worthwhile cover on the misguided Gary Numan tribute, "Random" (Numan deserved much better than the lackluster by-the-numbers imitations assembled there); but I didn't think it existed on a Saint Etienne album. So when I saw "Stormtrooper in Drag" on the tracklist of "Continental" I got it right away. This song is addictive, a high-octane energy blast. Saint Etienne takes Numan's Most Psychotic Song Ever (was he watching Visconti's "The Damned" on a bad trip?) to the club floor and dances all over it in stiletto heels. How pleased I was to also discover that the rest of "Continental" (a Japanese anthology of Saint Etienne's non-album tracks) is pretty great, ranking with "Good Humor" and "Sound of Water" as one of their best. What's appealing about "Continental" is its eclectic tour of electronica styles. "Shad Thames" is an Enofied near-instrumental, "Down By the Sea" ventures into Roni Size drum'n-bass territory, and "Angel" tries on Portishead's atmospherics, replete with simulated scratchy vinyl-lp noises. But through it all, Saint Etienne remains true to its own carefully crafted, slightly ethereal sound on the catchy tracks "Burnt Out Car," "Sometimes in Winter," "Lonesome," and the lump-in-the-throat-inducing "He's On the Phone." That last number has a big, driving chorus that may surprise listeners who wanted to write off Sarah Cracknell as queen of the la-la-la's. But I've always appreciated her earthy, as well as her airy, side. She's like the neighborhood librarian who gets sexy and wild when she goes out to a club. She's so innately tasteful that she can allow her musicians to deflate her own breathy romantic "pose" with all kinds of weird electronic gadget-sounds, and that's always been a big part of her charm, for me. There is a refreshing lack of vanity to Saint Etienne that undercuts the plastic excesses of pop music and club life, even as the band makes itself at home in both areas. Sometimes blonde anthologies do have more fun!

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