Foxbase Alpha

Saint Etienne | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 14, 1992)
• Original Release Date: January 14, 1992
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000002LS0
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,707 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #45 in Music > Indie Music > Dance & DJ > Electronica
  • #45 in Music > Alternative Rock > British Alternative > Britpop
  • #46 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Electronic Pop

Editorial Reviews

Deluxe digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition of the 1991 debut album from the British Electronic Pop outfit including a bonus CD featuring b-sides, mixes and five previously unreleased tracks. The album is luxuriously packaged in the Universal Deluxe Edition style and comes with a booklet packed with brand new sleevenotes, images and memorabilia. Released in 1991, it was nominated for the inaugural Mercury Music Prize and is now cited as one of the classic albums of the era. The album is home to the timeless 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' (their cover of the Neil Young song) and 'Nothing Can Stop Us'. Universal. 2009. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nine years ago, a legend was born., January 27, 2000

By 

Adam Carroll - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Foxbase Alpha (Audio CD)

This is what started it all. From album to album, the trio of Saint Etienne change musically like a chameleon changes its colors - and each change can be appreciated in a different way. There's something special about Foxbase Alpha, though. Sure it's a little rough around the edges (not having the help of the mixers from albums like Tiger Bay and Continental), but this album has a warmth all its own - a sort of timelessness, if you will. Some of the songs on the album are achievements that the Etienne have yet to top. 'Nothing Can Stop Us' is an amazing song, and it WILL put you in a good mood, no question. 'London Belongs To Me' washes you away in a dreamy sea of gentle vocals and synths. And of course, there's 'Spring', an utterly charming and innocent number. Those are my favorites, but I haven't even mentioned their outstanding covers - 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' by Neil Young, 'Kiss And Make Up' by the Field Mice... I could go on and on.

I love all of Saint Etienne's albums, and I appreciate each of them for what they are - it takes guts to make a pop record one year and a techno one the next, at the risk of seriously alienating some fans. Foxbase Alpha, though, is on a pedestal in my heart. Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs, and Sarah Cracknell may have gone on from here to explore newer, stranger, and wilder sonic frontiers, but this, their first foray into music, is simply magical.

Thanks.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eccentric, lovely dance-pop brilliance, December 15, 1999

By 

Michael Paulsen (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Foxbase Alpha (Audio CD)

Now that the 90's have come to a close, this album still stands as one of my Top 25 albums of the decade. This debut album is a brilliant, quirky blend of dance and techno sensibility combined with 60's retro pop melodies with lots of odd noodlings and samplings thrown in between. Saint Etienne still haven't bettered this album to date. Sarah Cracknell's like-honey vocals are sensuous and sincere, harkening back to the such 60's songstresses like Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark and Diana Ross. Instrumentalists Stanley and Wiggs' clever and masterful arrangements prove that they are electronica innovators in their own right. Listen for the odd vignettes "Etienne Gonna Die" (composed entirely of a snippet of dialogue from the film "House of Games" backed by menacing tribal-jungle percussion) and the psychotic "Wilson".

Standouts are "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" (a classy club rendition of Neil Young's song), "Spring" , She's the One", "People Get Real" (my all-time favorite Etienne song), "Stoned to Say the Least" (ambient-dance bliss), "Nothing Can Stop Us" and "Kiss and Make Up".

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greatly Improved, July 2, 2009

By 

Aparato SuperSonico (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Foxbase Alpha (Deluxe Edition) (Incl. Bonus CD) (Audio CD)

If you own the original copy of this CD already as I do, you'll hear the album greatly improved by the remastering. The extra tracks are good, nothing that will change your life, but a nice little bonus. Wait for the price to drop below $20 though. It's a bit expensive for an album that's been around for so long.