Saint Etienne have unbelievable musical cred. Indie-poppers love them for covering the Field Mice's twee classic "Kiss and Make Up" and rediscovering the reclusive '80s girl group the Dolly Mixture. Electroniacs dig them for being early movers in the disco revival. Everybody else loves them for being our generation's ABBA. But it wasn't enough--they wanted to cash in on the Northwest grunge scene by signing to Sub Pop! Fear not. Good Humor is a far cry from grunge. It is the cleanest, lightest, loveliest confection to grace any American label in ages, let alone the heavy, crunchy one. Longtime Saint Etienne fans will notice the clean focus of the electronic arrangements on Good Humor as well as the fancy horn section and the amazing, woozy bass playing of their Swedish producer, Tore Johansson. Haul this record out to bring back your favorite summer day or when you're wishing life were like a Mentos commercial. --Lois Maffeo
Review by Matthew Hilburn
Good Humor has Saint Etienne back cooking up more delectable lolli-pop. From "Woodcabin," the dubby, bass-heavy opener, Good Humor is a typically arch Saint Etienne album full of easy-listening dream pop. Tracks like the shimmering "Lose That Girl" and the swirling "Erica America" show Saint Etienne at its melancholic best. There are, predictably, some near misses such as the Beatlesque "Mr. Donut," which is as sweet as a strawberry field but fails to deliver the melodic promises made by the smart atmospherics. "Goodnight Jack," with its pastel-shaded flute loops and subtle breakbeats, has a positively cooler-than-cool feel and a wrenching change of pace toward the middle of the song. Sure, Good Humor is clever, perhaps overly so, and yeah, it's full of the Et's contrived coyness and we-know-more-than-you attitude, but it's good stuff. Sometimes you just want to put on a disc, sit back, and let it carry you off to someplace else. If that's all you're looking for, Good Humor is sweet ear candy.
Saint Etienne
Good Humor
[Sub Pop]
Rating: 8.0
All styles get recycled and reused over time, modified to reflect the generation that's retro- fitting them into their perception of modern, but more or less remaining intact in theme. Lately the world is full of multitudes of retro- factions, from the swing dancing in Gap ads to the endless strings of disco movies coming out of Hollywood. But when it comes to reliving the ultra-mod go-go flip-top lifestyles of the neo-hippies, Saint Etienne has a huge head start on the rest of the crowd.
Saint Etienne are probably best known for their early '90s dance remake of Neil Young's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart." Traditionally finding good use of electronics in their reproduction 1960s groove lounge music makes it seem like the apocalypse is upon us to find that their latest album, Good Humor, has been released by garage independent Sub Pop. Strange as it may seem, the Sub Pop solution is immensely favorable to trying to build a Saint Etienne discography from mail-order imports.
What is Good Humor? Think Paris in the 1960s-- Fluxus, miniskirts, "The Graduate," "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," Sean Connery as "007" and "The Saint" when it was still a show on British television starring Roger Moore. Think "The Avengers," whose modern- day mod remake soundtrack is conspicuously lacking a track off this album. Take these images, wrap them together, and create a musical score for the whole package. Have the score played on contemporary instruments by three musicians with a flare for looking backwards with charm and... there you have it.
The music is infinitely cooler than most of the lounge compilations that you've seen in the checkout lanes of the local megaplex music store, but still nothing that wouldn't fit into the background of any scene where an older Cary Grant sips on a martini. The album is consistently good from track to track, despite its lack of anything truly amazing. Not to let that deter you; the groove is perfect mood music for those less kitschy neo-swinger parties. Twister and a lava lamp are requisites.
-Skaht Hansen
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