Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but calling it a coincidence would be overlooking that Saint Etienne don’t just create pop music, they obsess over it. They are music archeologists, curators, and historians, parsing the esthetics and minutiae like botanists in a rainforest. What’s more, Saint Etienne‘s very career got off the ground with a brilliantly danceable cover of Neil Young‘s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”.
No, it doesn’t seem like a coincidence at all that one of the most poignant songs on their self-described final album, International, is called “Fade”. It just has to be a reference to Young’s iconic lyric, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away” from his 1979 single “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)” with Crazy Horse.
If this is indeed the case, it also seems likely that the members of Saint Etienne—Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley, and Pete Wiggs—are sending us another in a long line of sly, coy, wink-wink messages. Because, of course, they have not burned out at all. It was a bit of a shock to read that International was going to be their final album, but the real surprise was that they made it this long.
Their 1991 debut, Foxbase Alpha, was so closely tied to the classic indie pop and burgeoning club styles of the era that it sounded nostalgic from the moment it was released. Yet underneath the state-of-the-moment production was a timelessness indebted to Motown, Phil Spector, and sophisticated songwriters such as Young. It was all held together by Cracknell’s silky, coquettish crooning, giving the group a consistent identity while many of their peers cycled through featured vocalists.
Stanley and Wiggs were amateur musicians, one-finger keyboard players. As conceptualists, though, they were Mozarts, and this combination afforded Saint Etienne an unexpected flexibility. Across 35 years, 11 studio albums, and numerous odds and sods collections, they have consistently reflected the producers and collaborators they have worked with, while always sounding like themselves.
Fittingly, International is one of those pseudo “Greatest Hits” studio records, functioning like a career retrospective made of new material. The core trio have brought in even more collaborators than usual, with some familiar faces joining in for the valedictory occasion. The result is their most varied album since their early 1990s halcyon days, and a strong set of songs. Along with the high points, though, comes some evidence to justify the idea that the band’s decision to close it down was a wise one.
For the most part, fans should be thrilled that International is an album that, in terms of construction and feel (if not overall quality), sits alongside Saint Etienne’s early run of classic LPs. Lead single “Glad” is, quite simply, vintage Saint Etienne. The careening orchestra hits and cracking Motown drums, provided by the Chemical Brothers‘ Tom Rowlands, are so euphoric that the gospel backing vocals almost seem like overkill.
The band’s trademark happy/sad combo fits like a cozy blanket and feels extra poignant under the circumstances, as Cracknell sings “Don’t it make you sad / When you are lonely / But don’t it make you glad?” The brassy, swinging follow-up “Brand New Me”, with Australian pop duo Confidence Man, is either a tribute to or a straight rewrite of “Nothing Can Stop Us”, one of their all-time great singles, right down to the spoken word verses.
The sweeping, ethereal “Sweet Melodies” could have come right off Tiger Bay (1994), while “He’s Gone” is a sleek Euro-stomper in the mold of past hits like “He’s on the Phone”. The joyous Britpop of “The Go-Betweens”, with 1980s survivor Nick Heyward joining Cracknell, is reminiscent of Tales From Turnpike House (2005). “Why Are You Calling” hearkens to the studied indie-pop of Good Humor (1998).
As long as it stays within this wheelhouse of styles and sounds, International is pretty terrific. When the group venture beyond it, the result is something like “Take Me to the Pilot”. Set to a backing techno track by Orbital‘s Paul Hartnoll, it sounds like an Orbital track, with Cracknell struggling to find a melody or something interesting to do with it. Furthermore, a simple comparison/contrast shows how Saint Etienne’s creative spirit has dulled at least a bit.
Tiger Bay and International each contain a stark, electro-trance dance track. Both are bangers, but while the 1994 track is called “Like a Motorway”, the 2025 model can’t venture anything more exotic than “Two Lovers”. Consider which title sounds more intriguing, and you will begin to understand how a band’s edge wears down over time.
One thing that hasn’t worn down is Cracknell’s beguiling voice. Saint Etienne’s last two albums were mostly instrumental affairs, so this is the first time in eight years we have really had a chance to hear her sing. Her voice is slightly deeper and a bit huskier, but everything she sings or says still comes across as either a secret or a bedtime story. It’s unfortunate, then, that the band have altered her voice electronically and/or pitched it up on several tracks.
At the end of International, Saint Etienne do something truly surprising. They have always been the coolest, most collected, most debonair of bands. Yet on the self-explanatory “The Last Time”, here they are letting their guard down and referencing that most middle-aged of pastimes, looking up old high school friends on Facebook. Backed with treacly synthpop, the unfortunate misstep has to be as deliberate as that Neil Young reference, doesn’t it?
In any case, with International, these pop academics have left us with one final lesson: if you must fade away, do so gracefully. Saint Etienne most certainly have.
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