The thirteenth album of Saint Etienne has the flavor of an epilogue. International It marks the closure of a thirty -five -year path that chased, with obstinacy and grace, the idea of ​​a perfect pop: elegant, diaphanous, increasingly evocative than assertive.
It is not a traumatic dissolution, but a conscious act: Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs and Sarah Cracknell remain an indissoluble human partnership, but they decide to stop before the routine Heroda the very meaning of their research. After the night and introspective The night (2024) The trio chooses a leave of opposite sign: a solar album, permeated with lightness and desire for the end of year party.
In fact, “International” lives on a contagious vitality, entrusted to a parterre of collaborations that do not sound as a prestigious exercise but as a natural conversation between elective affinities. Gladco-scored with Tom Rowlands of the Chemical Brothers, immediately brings the direction clear: a bright pop, immediate, but never banal, made even more brilliant by the cameo of Jez Williams (Dues). Then there is the meeting with the Confidence Man – declared fans and now accomplices – who gives to New Me brand A freshness that seems to slip from 1991 to today seamlessly.
The disc crosses different, but always recognizable territories: Sweet melodies with Erol Alkan, Two Lovers With Vince Clarke, the duet with Nick Heyward in The Go Bethaeensuntil Take me to the pilot In collaboration with Paul Hartnoll of the Orbital. Each song is a variation on the theme of a sophisticated and choral pop, which does not give up the basic melancholy typical of the band.
The ending is entrusted to The Last Timea trace that knows of goodbye: not a stroke of theater, but a measured greeting, imbued with gratitude and lucidity. Thus the Saint Etienne close their discography, leaving a coherent corpus, often underestimated and never completely recognized in its real historical stature.
“International” is a record that photographs the band in its most authentic state: light and reflective, intimate and shared. A farewell that has the warmth of a party, but also the lucidity of those who know when to lower the curtain.
How to conclude this review if not with thanks for your music!
