Customer Reviews

Tales from Turnpike House

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Saint Etienne are in top form here. This is their best since "The Sound of Water," which I thought could not be surpassed. Yet in some respects it is very different. It's mellower and almost melancholic. The entire CD has a certain mood about it and if this is the direction the band is going, I'm thrilled with it.

The lead off track "Sun in my Morning" is so deliciously pleasant with Wilson-esque "Pet Sounds" era harmonies. "Milk Bottle Symphony" sounds like a missing track from "Good Humor," with its catchy melody and quality production value. "Lightning Strikes Twice" spotlights Sarah Cracknell's vocal range. The first single "Side Streets" is reminiscent of the classic Youngbloods song "Sunlight." "Last Orders for Gary Stead" shows that Saint Etienne aren't afraid to add a little oomph to their music. So who's singing the duet on "Relocate?" The writing credit goes to Essex/Stanley/Wiggs. Is that really David Essex dueting on "Relocate?" No way! Come on! Get out! Unfortunately the vocalist isn't credited. "The Birdman of EC1" is the instrumental. There's always at least one of those, and it's a beauty with it's fading in and out carousel bit juxtaposed against the haunting keyboard foreground.

The dance tracks "Stars Above Us" and "A Good Thing" are not as punchy as previous dance tracks like "Action" or "He's on the Phone," but they make you want to hop under the strobe light and move in embarassing ways. On "Teenage Winter," Sarah tells us a story of growing up and entering adulthood, which is appropriate considering the obvious maturing sound of the band as shown brilliantly on this CD. "Goodnight" ends the CD on a pleasant note.

The extra CD "Up the Wooden Hill" is a "nice to have" rather than "need to have" collection of simple songs with childlike lyrics. Fans will love it. The average listener should be charmed by it...particularly with the wonderful ditty called "Bedfordshire," which is about a father and young child out enjoying the country. It's precious. Of course the bonus CD is only other place I've ever heard the word "excitation" used in a song save for the Beach Boys "Good Vibrations."

The only disappointment I have in all of this is that as an American citizen, I had to buy this as an import. That means it's not technically been released in the US, which means they have no need to tour here. Hopefully it will come out officially in the US because I'd love to see them in concert again in support of "Tales From Turnpike House."

saint etienne is my favorite band. ever. it's really not even a contest. i'm in the middle of a decade long love affair with the ets, ever since i first heard them back in the fall of 1994 in ponferrada, spain. like most people here on amazon, i too consider 'so tough' and 'tiger bay' to be albums by which all other saint etienne albums could be judged. *could* being the operative word. for some reason there appear to be a lot of people claiming 'it's no 'tiger bay' or it's not as good as 'so tough.' these are probably the same folks still pining away for u2 to make 'the joshua tree' part deux, and the same folks who are disappointed to find that their best friends from high school or college have, in fact, changed in the last 15 years. we're talking apples and oranges here. comparing saint etienne 2005 to saint etienne 1995 is an exercise in futility, and not to mention a bit pointless. Of course they've changed, matured, grown up, etc. how different were YOU ten to fifteen years ago?

having said that, i was bit apprehensive about a new release, especially after the watered-down and somewhat uninspired 'finisterre' (which certainly did have its nice moments, to be sure). i stumbled across an advanced copy of the album and with a little trepidation stuck in my cd player. it's kind of like opening a present from grandma: you hope it's g.i. joe headquarters, but there's a slight chance it's smurf pajamas. after a few tracks i was convinced: saint etienne is back, and back with a vengeance. there are the obligatory dance floor stompers like 'good thing,' 'lightening strikes twice,' and the absolutely addictive 'stars above us' which challenges even the most rhythmically challenged to get out on the dance floor and give it a go (i'm sure it'll spawn a whole disc of remixes, too). and make no mistake: this isn't saint etienne 'doing kylie,' as so many have said. rather this is saint etienne doing kylie doing saint etienne. kylie's got nothing on lady crackers, kids. and well all know it. there's also the mozzer-esque 'marching orders for gary stead' straight from the t-rex school of glitter-glam pop which we've really not heard from the ets before.

these songs aside, the real strength of 'tales from turnpike house' lays in the softer, quieter songs. (here i go comparing apples and oranges) 'sun in my morning' with it's 'pet sounds' vocal harmonies (that 'tales from...' was inspired by 'smile' shouldn't come as any surprise), 'slow down at the castle,' and 'teenage winter' hearken back to the 'tiger bay' and 'he's on the phone' b-sides, particular 'i buy american records,' 'groveley road,' 'is it true,' and the exquisite 'the process' (arguably one of their finest moments). sarah, still glamorous as ever, sounds smooth as cinema seats (ok, that was bad, i admit it) and pete and bob have once again dipped into their magic hat of pop nostalgia and mixed it with just the right amount of contemporary flare.

in short, this isn't 'tiger bay' or 'so tough,' nor should it be. anyone wanting another one of those two albums needs to save up his or her money and buy a time machine. 'tales from turnpike house' reveals a new, rejuvenated, reinvigorated saint etienne -- confident, sassy, and passively cool-without entirely shedding the skin that made them so great and innovative in the first place.

saint etienne 2005 sees the band with one eye excitedly looking toward the future and the other looking lovingly at the past.

a stellar album.

WOWWWW!!!!!!AMAZING!!!!!this album is a whole body of a symphony , well crafted... where every song is a wonder !!!
What i admire in a band like Saint Etienne is their ability to evoluate without loosing their trademark'sound ; Saint Etienne music is a mixture of pop nostalgia ,romantic, innocent and dreamy and this album "Tales from turnpike house" offers all that and more ...need to say that comparing this album to their previous excellent "Sound of Water", one would realise that this record is much UP BEAT : if "Sound of Water" makes you float in the air then this album will makes you fly faster ...
and to fly above english suburbia where each song tells the story of ordinary people living in a block, and their divided feeling towards whether life in the city is a good thing or should we move to the country ...as the song "relocate" perfectly describe this .
"Milk Bottle Symphony" is purely M I N D B L O W I N G with its changes of moods; this is a 3 parts' song beautifully arranged : it takes your head from a place to another ...and remind me of the 9 minutes'"How we Used to Live" from the "Sound of Water" album ...( hope i did not spoil the surprise ...)
"Lightning Strikes Twice" has all the beauty of the Hi -Energy style created in the 80s and is really interesting by showing an evil side of Saint-Etienne ; about a girl doing black magic ritual to get her lover back !
"Teenage Winter" has a charming melancolie and a huge wall of sound that will leave you breathless !
I won't go further by dissecting all the songs but i hope this is enough to tell all music lovers that this album is a masterpiece done by a beautiful band whose aim is to make you feel better , feel good and feel beautiful ...and what more should someone ask for ???

I'm appreciating this album more with every listen, and it's now possibly my favorite from Saint Etienne. I've been an avid fan since So Tough ('93). Disregard the one-star troll below: fans are likely to treasure this one.

The "soul" of the album harkens back to Tiger Bay & So Tough in its love of melody and character sketches, yet the sound is lush and immaculately produced. This is a diverse set of dance tracks and slow and mid-tempo numbers, and yet it all fits together (mostly). The touches of electronica are still here, but kept in balance; this is a warmer and more accessible album than their past two.

There's also a huge Brian Wilson influence: added male background vocalists who mimic the more transcendent moments of Beach Boys' recordings. They drop in to ooo-waah and harmonize at just the right points, in about half the tracks -- most notably on the brief songs that open and close the album (Sun In My Morning / Goodnight). The effect is sweet!

Track highlights -

Milk Bottle Symphony: Evokes the album cover... catchy melody and tight verses, we're dropping in quickly on all these various characters and how they live. Many of them reappear later across the album. This number and Teenage Winter are the twin centerpieces of the album.

Lightning Strikes Twice: Hooky dance number, Sarah gets a bit wicked sounding... this could be a chart single.

Slow Down at the Castle: Guitar-based, haunting, worth an intimate listen.

A Good Thing: Thumping power disco, urgent, catchy. Sarah wrote this one.

Side Streets: the first single, Karen Carpenter-style vocals over a very light latin-tinged rhythm.

Last Orders for Gary Stead: rock 'n roll sound here, heavy swinging guitar chords, a different sound for Saint Etienne.

Stars Above Us: Disco-funk fabulous; this one is Kylie territory but they do it perfectly. I want the remixes!

Relocate & Birdman: The former is annoying (to me) -- the man in the duet has a quavering affected voice like a 70 year old clutching a tumbler of gin -- and the latter is an ok instrumental. I plan to re-burn the CD and add some favorite B-sides in place of these two. Side note, You Can Count On Me from the bonus disc is great.

Teenage Winter: WOW.... brought tears to my eyes at first listen, when that gorgeous refrain came rising up after the spoken verse. This is a beautiful song, and I found its blend of nostalgia and realism deeply moving.

All in all Tales is Saint Etienne's most cohesive album, with tracks 1-8 and 11-12 being so excellent that a case can be made for Tales being their best album yet.

Saint Etienne has been studiously ignored by North American radio for so long it's no wonder one might think them aloof or elitist. But Tales From Turnpike House has something for everyone - they seek only to entertain. They have this fascinating chameleon-like ability to just nail any style of pop music. You get an album full of top quality songcraft, drenched with lovely Beach Boys-esque ooohs & aaahs, and of course Sarah's trademark breathy, sexy singing. And the electronics are never overbearing - they just melt easily into the mix.

The album is evocative of a pleasant urban neighbourhood where most people walk or take public transit. Milk Bottle Symphony introduces the ordinary characters of Turnpike House who get their own songs later on -- like Teenage Winter and Last Orders for Gary Stead -- and there's a real treat in the middle.

Slow Down at the Castle is the high point for me; it starts with gorgeous acoustic guitar, then sweet backing harmonies, strings, harpsichord, a woo-y electronic sound and echo-y piano. Somehow it's just evocative of a fleeting musical moment or a barely-remembered feeling. It's so good your jaw will drop when you hear it.

Side Streets, the first single, is about a girl defying the urban horror stories she's heard to get home even while channeling the Carpenters. Just hearing Sarah sing "bubble" is enough to turn me to mush.

Then you step into the pub to visit with Gary Stead: Saint Etienne can even make classic rock palatable. Then suddenly you're dancing to Stars Above Us under the twirling disco ball.

Relocate is a kind of show-tune duet - featuring a guy with a hilarious quavering voice - about the differences between the country and the city.

Goodnight is a stunning a capella number that's so good you'd think these guys had been doing a capella all along.

The style-hopping adds up to a great pop album. Up the Wooden Hill, the disc of children's music is adorable and very interesting, too. You Can Count on Me will have the little ones grooving.

I'm telling you there is not an unpleasant song on these 2 discs. These guys really know what they're doing. Buy it and enjoy!

like most people here on amazon, i too consider 'so tough' and 'tiger bay' to be albums by which all other saint etienne albums could be judged. *could* being the operative word. for some reason there appear to be a lot of people claiming 'it's no 'tiger bay' or it's not as good as 'so tough.' these are probably the same folks still pining away for u2 to make 'the joshua tree' part deux, and the same folks who are disappointed to find that their best friends from high school or college have, in fact, changed in the last 15 years. we're talking apples and oranges here. comparing saint etienne 2005 to saint etienne 1995 is an exercise in futility, and not to mention a bit pointless. Of course they've changed, matured, grown up, etc. how different were YOU ten to fifteen years ago?

having said that, i was bit apprehensive about a new release, especially after the watered-down and somewhat uninspired 'finisterre' (which certainly did have its nice moments, to be sure). i stumbled across an advanced copy of the album and with a little trepidation stuck in my cd player. it's kind of like opening a present from grandma: you hope it's g.i. joe headquarters, but there's a slight chance it's smurf pajamas. after a few tracks i was convinced: saint etienne is back, and back with a vengeance. there are the obligatory dance floor stompers like 'good thing,' 'lightening strikes twice,' and the absolutely addictive 'stars above us' which challenges even the most rhythmically challenged to get out on the dance floor and give it a go (i'm sure it'll spawn a whole disc of remixes, too). and make no mistake: this isn't saint etienne 'doing kylie,' as so many have said. rather this is saint etienne doing kylie doing saint etienne. kylie's got nothing on lady crackers, kids. and well all know it. there's also the mozzer-esque 'marching orders for gary stead' straight from the t-rex school of glitter-glam pop which we've really not heard from the ets before.

these songs aside, the real strength of 'tales from turnpike house' lays in the softer, quieter songs. (here i go comparing apples and oranges) 'sun in my morning' with it's 'pet sounds' vocal harmonies (that 'tales from...' was inspired by 'smile' shouldn't come as any surprise), 'slow down at the castle,' and 'teenage winter' hearken back to the 'tiger bay' and 'he's on the phone' b-sides, particular 'i buy american records,' 'groveley road,' 'is it true,' and the exquisite 'the process' (arguably one of their finest moments). sarah, still glamorous as ever, sounds smooth as cinema seats (ok, that was bad, i admit it) and pete and bob have once again dipped into their magic hat of pop nostalgia and mixed it with just the right amount of contemporary flare.

in short, this isn't 'tiger bay' or 'so tough,' nor should it be. anyone wanting another one of those two albums needs to save up his or her money and buy a time machine. 'tales from turnpike house' reveals a new, rejuvenated, reinvigorated saint etienne -- confident, sassy, and passively cool-without entirely shedding the skin that made them so great and innovative in the first place.

saint etienne 2005 sees the band with one eye excitedly looking toward the future and the other looking lovingly at the past.

a stellar album. (and one note: the US version thankfully leaves off 'relocate,' one of the albums weaker tracks).

Over their fifteen year career, and having amassed a back catalogue that's like the Eurovision we should have (rather than the one we get), Saint Etienne are again proving how exceptional they are. At risk of putting you off in the first paragraph, Tales from Turnpike House is a `concept' album which over twelve songs describes the daily lives of the residents of a fictitious housing estate. Sounds naff? It's not, and you'll probably want to move in by the end of the record.

A career defining album of sorts that also seems to be ushering in summer a few months early TFTH can't help but impress with its classy ballads and breezy disco. And once again, they make it all sound so incredibly effortless. It's all here - harmonies, harpsichords and house-beats mix with nylon-stringed guitars, Bacharach-worthy melodies and that tasteful Saint Etienne infectiousness that just grabs you tighter with each listen.

The album opens with the 60's Free Design-ish pop of Sun In The Morning (there's even woodwinds!) and the day closes with the a capella lullaby Goodnight. Track 2, Milk Bottle Symphony, introduces us to some of the residents that turn up in the later songs. There's A Good Thing and Stars Above Us, which will have to be singles at some stage, surely, but also sound a lot like they may have fallen off Sarah Cracknell's solo pop masterpiece Lipslide. Relocate also stands out due to the addition of 1970's pop sensation David Essex and his call and response vocals with Sarah Cracknell about the pros and cons of moving to the country. But these are only random selections; this is an album full of highlights.

Track 10, the instrumental The Birdman of EC1 appears to commence the "twilight" of the album, moving us gently into Teenage Winter which magnificently balances a Pulp-ish spoken word verse against an unbelievably dreamy chorus. Ending with Goodnight, Tales From Turnpike House tempts the listener to recommence the daily cycle at track one; a choice many will find hard to resist.

Boy, was I happy I picked this up! A friend of mine was raving about the new Saint Etienne album, and one day, I was just sitting there, and it was there, so I picked it up and bought it.

This group has been around for a long time, and from hearing all their other albums, this has got to be the best one that they've put out. I am a huge Goldfrapp fan, and a lot of the songs on this album, are a bit like Goldfrapp, especially my favorite track "Lightning Strikes Twice". It is a very dark, driving song, the vocals are dark and steamy.

The other songs on this album, go from sounding like british pop, to sounding like Goldfrapp. Some are jaunty and bounce around, while others are dark and meaningful.

Other key tracks are "Stars Above Us", "Teenage Winter" and I just enjoy the bonus track "Relocate". It's a bit cheesy, but I find it quite fun. It's kind of like a song you'd find in a Broadway musical.

All in all, this is a great album, and shouldn't be passed up by anyone in the pop scene. Beautiful musical stylings, awesome vocals and the songwriting is top notch.

I confess, before I stumbled across this record in the listening section of my local record store, I had never even heard of Saint Etienne, much less heard any of their music. I'm picky when it comes to music, sometimes to a fault, so I fully expected to be unamused when I threw on the headphones. My reaction could pretty much be summed up by the title of one of C.S. Lewis's books: "Surprised by Joy". That is what came across within the first few moments of listening to "Tales From Turnpike House", sudden, unadulterated joy, albeit with a twist of melancholy.

In this work, Saint Etienne express a love of living that is not in the least bit naive or escapist. Rather, it takes into account all of the complexities, fears and disappointments that modern urban life entails, and concludes that it is worth living nonetheless, indeed worth living well. The centerpiece for this sentiment is, of course, the single "Side Streets", a song whose airy, poppy delivery belies its very serious subject matter, yet also manages to juxtapose those elements without descending into oh-so-clever irony. It's true, Saint Etienne do skirt the edge of being just a bit too precious, but there's something just so appealing about them that would make you forgive them even if they did go overboard just a little. Rarely these days do artists produce something with such a mature vision that still manages to be as totally fresh-sounding and accessible as "Tales From Turnpike House". I'm now intrigued to hear the rest of their back catalogue and will definitely call myself a fan if any of it turns out to be half as good as this one.

P.S. I still can't understand why the U.S. release is reordered and has tracks removed. Bonus tracks is fine, but please don't delete stuff from the original!

Yes, it's an overused term, but Saint Etienne have created their best album to date. Usually 'concept' works make the average listener run in horror, but the band has created an accessible pop masterwork filled with insight. Tales from Turnpike House is a series of songs narrating the various occupants of 'Turnpike House' and their pub. The disc Opens with the very dense but gentle harmonies of "Sun in my morning", very much painted from Brian Wilson's sonic pallette. "Milk Bottle Symphony" unleashes Saint Etienne's classic pop-sound...it is instantly catchy with an airy La-la-la chorus linking some pretty down-to-earth verses. Etienne has always had incomparable skills crafting pop melodies, but here they match them with great lyrics and a great scope of concept linking the songs together. As they work through such wonderful tunes as "Slow Down at the Castle", "Lightning Stikes Twice" and "Side Streets" the music is so catchy you almost forget that they are chronicling the often difficult lives of average ex-burban Londoners and the upheaval of the community around them. By the time you get to "Teenage Winter" and the chorus lead-in "holding on to something...and not knowing...exactly what you're waiting for", the album has turned into a rather informed observation as well as a superb product of pop craftsmanship. Absolutely bloody brilliant!

As for the "Wooden Hills" EP. It is far less epic, but quite enjoyable in its own right as Saint Etienne sing some songs for the wee ones... count in English, French and Spanish...sing about some farm animals...and then finally explore the nightly journey to "Bedfordshire". It's all quite lovely and sweet without being cloying (and that is saying a lot for music aimed at the little ones). Well done. Let's hope the full disc sees the light of day sometime.