Next Saint Etienne Reissues Due May 4

1994's Tiger Bay and 2002's Finisterre are latest to get the remastered/expanded treatment. They come on the heels of the Foxbase Alpha, Continental, So Tough and The Sound Of Water 2CD reissues.

By Fred Mills

As announced here back in January, Britain's Saint Etienne resume their back catalog overhaul with two more Deluxe Editions. According to the band, 1994's Tiger Bay and 2002's Finisterre were originally slated to come out as 2CD sets in late March, but the remastered and vastly expanded albums have now been given a May 4 release date. They'll come out on Heavenly via Universal in the UK; at present no American release has been announced (which is why God created Amazon.co.uk, we imagine).

As an extra bonus for collectors, Finisterre will come in an additional limited edition configuration featuring a DVD of the film of the same name. A lot of St. E fans will already have the Paul Kelly/Kieran Evans film ("a film about London," read the subtitle), as it was originally released on DVD in 2005 by the Plexifilm company, but if not, here's hoping that this version also contains the assorted bonus features, among them additional Saint Etienne tour visual sequences, that came on the original DVD.

According to Heavenly:

Tiger Bay was Saint Etienne's second Top 10 album, and took the group into a new place by mixing traditional folk melodies with modern electronica. They worked with Underworld, Shara Nelson, Stephen Duffy, arranger David Whitaker, and Birmingham neo-dubsters Original Rockers to create a windblown but lush record, echoing its oil painting cover. Previously unheard bonus tracks on Disc Two include an abandoned sequel to Mario's Cafe called Black Horse Latitudes (set in the evening, in a Tufnell Park pub), and the perky Wedding Of Stacy Dorning which looked forward to the sunshine pop of 1998's Good Humor.

Finisterre was a love/hate letter to London, with its iconic image of the collapsed Ronan Point on the cover, recorded at a time of mass demonstrations against the government and just after folk hero Ken Livingstone had been elected Mayor. Alternately harsh and gentle, electronic and thrumming, it included the nu-disco call-to-arms single Action. Unreleased tracks on the second disc of the deluxe edition include the near-mythical Dr Who-sampling There There My Brigadier, and a tribute to the mysterious Aqualad who resides under the Thames, waiting for his moment to take the city back from the financiers and to open up the Post Office Tower's revolving restaurant once again.

Tracklisting:

TIGER BAY

CD 1 (original album)

1. Urban Clearway
2. Former Lover
3. Hug My Soul
4. Like A Motorway
5. On The Shore
6. Marble Lions
7. Pale Movie
8. Cool Kids Of Death
9. Western Wind / Tankerville
10. The Boy Scouts Of America

CD2
1. Urban Clearway (demo) *
2. Black Horse Latitude *
3. I Buy American Records
4. Hate Your Drug
5. You Know I'll Miss You When I'm Gone
6. Sushi Rider
7. Hug My Soul (demo) *
8. The Wedding Of Stacy Dorning *
9. Deborah's French Feast *
10. Western Wind (demo) *
11. Pale Movie (demo) *
12. La Poupee Qui Fait Non (no no no)
13. Highgate Road Incident
14. My Christmas Prayer
15. I Was Born On Christmas Day

*previously un-released. The non-demo tracks are brand new recordings.

FINISTERRE

CD1 (original album)
1. Action
2. Amateur
3. Language Lab
4. Soft Like Me
5. Summer Isle
6. Stop And Think It Over
7. Shower Scene
8. The Way We Live Now
9. New Thing
10. B92
11. The More You Know
12. Finisterre

CD2
1. Primrose Hill
2. Anderson Unbound
3. Seven Summers
4. Gimp Crisis
5. Abby, I Hardly Know You
6. So Mystified *
7. White Dress *
8. Time And Tide
9. Shock Corridor
10. Stop And Think It Over (Kid Loco mix) *
11. Mountain Rain
12. Queen Of Polythene
13. Ballade De Saint Etienne
14. Stevie
15. Get It Together Again
16. Fascination
17. There There My Brigadier *

* previously un-released. All tracks, except the Kid Loco mix, are brand new recordings.