Smash the System: Singles and More [EXTRA TRACKS] [IMPORT]

Saint Etienne

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 24, 2001)
• Original Release Date: September 2001
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Extra tracks, Import
• Label: Musicrama
• ASIN: B00005NB0I
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #66,581 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Import only compilation featuring most of their official Heavenly era singles as well as B-sides, favorite album tracks & alternative or slightly remixed versions of older songs. 34 tracks including 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart', 'Kiss And Make Up', 'People Get Real', 'Pale Movie', 'Like A Motorway', 'Burnt out Car', 'Jack Lemmon' and more. Sony.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Saint Etienne compilation, October 19, 2001

By	Erica Anderson (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I personally think "Smash the System" is far better than "Too Young to Die". I thought I bought "Too Young to Die" just a year after its release and when the price was skyhigh. Compared to "Smash the System", it really wasn't worth the money I shelled out for it. "Smash the System" on the other hand was well worth the price. This current compilation of the band's singles is a two cd set since there are so many songs this excellent indie pop band has churned out. The only way to put together a current comp without missing a single song was to make this comp a 2-cd set. All of my favorite songs are found on this cd like "Pale Movie" and "The Bad Photographer". Of course there are songs that I haven't heard yet from the band like "Filthy", "4:35 In the Morning" and "Shad Thames". This compilation of Saint Etienne's singles couldn't get any more thorough than it is. One of the best compilations of singles I have heard in years. Not one song on this 2 cd set I didn't like.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great SE collection for beginners, good addition for fans, September 6, 2005

By	J. Pool (Atlanta, Ga USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

_Smash the System_ is great collection of earlier (pre-_Sound of Water_ as far as I can tell) Saint Etienne. It's less of an attempt at a definitive collection, ala the more recent anthology _Travel Edition_, and more of a nicely eclectic sampling of the group's prodigious output. If you've heard some SE that you have, of course, loved and want to get a sense of their wider catalog, this a good place to start. The two disks also serve as great party disks or fodder for brilliant pop mixes in their own right. It also shows that SE are no one consistant thing/genre except great pop music. Sometimes they are more dancey, sometimes more trip-hop, at others neo-classical Phil Spectorish pop. It's the sort of group that can make you think of Massive Attack, Sterolab, B.A.D., and Papas Fritas at the same time, while still being their own wonderfully incomparable thing.
It's hard to judge the title phrase "singles and more" as, at least according to the liner notes, all of the songs were previously albumn tracks, though at least some of these albumns were Japan only releases and almost all of them are a challenge to find in the U.S. (I suspect there's some story here about SE having had bad early experiences with U.S. distributors. _So Tough_ came out on WB but more recent releases have been on Subpop. Maybe it has something to do with that shampoo comercial.) So far as I can tell, many of the singles are not appreciably different from the albumn tracks that I already had from _So Tough_ and _Good Humour_. Still, these are fabulous songs. I had lost my copy of _Fox Base Alpha_ and so was greatful to have those great indie-pop classics back, and my girlfriend especially liked the section of dance-mix tracks that we hadn't heard before.
SE fans (at least those who are willing to shell out for the imports) may not be especially well served by this collection, as they will have many of the tracks already. Still, it's not a bad price for a two-disk set, especially as an import. So, if you want to widen your exposure to SE or introduce someone else to them, this is a fine way to do it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars St. Etienne Is Smashing!!, April 10, 2002

By	Leclerk (Dallas, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

I admit that I'm not one of those St. Etienne fans that owns every album, EP, or single (Money Constraints Don't Allow Me). In fact I only have "Smash the System" and a B-sides compliation "Interludes." I only got into St. Etienne after suffering from a case of menal distress caused by low-grade, poor quality, air-polluting music marketed by profit-driven music magazines, record labels, and dumb rock critics. After having accumulated a sizeable collection of all the Bowiesque Brit-pop acts, American Grunge, Post-grunge, and French 60s OOh-la-la, yeh-yeh pop, and campy crooners, I thought I hit a dead end, and would eventually have to satifsy my appetite for good music with radio junk like Kylie Minogue (actually, she's alright) until the "next big sound" came around, if it ever would happen.

When I bought "Smash the System" I thought I was taking a gamble, because I usually preferred music that followed a "one way street" towards one type of sound and not be influenced by too many types of musical styles. On my first listen, "Smash the System" just floored me. The music influences are from all over the place but St. Etienne puts it all together so cleverly and stylishly that it would be hard to accuse St. Etienne of being recyclers with no innovative ideas of their own. Through an amalgam of musical styles, St. Etienne crafts songs that rises above the labels of their influences and creates something new and refreshing. Also, this is not another "girly" kind of sound. St. Etienne would probably appeal to people who like a clean sound that includes mastery of melody making, oderly song-structure, rhythms, harmony, and effortless-pop sung by a lovely and endearing songbird Sarah McCracknell.

They have a great versatiliy. They can make some of the fullest, prettiest and most direct and clear pop ballads like "Jack Lemmon" or "Spring." If you like cheap-upbeat-techno, they can do that also with an air of irony in "Join our Club." More introspective with an emphasis on soundscapes are plentiful. It's probably the only album that I can listen at any point of the day, waking up, driving, studying legal cases, and chilling out. Any person giving this album less than 5 stars to any St. Etienne album are just spolied fans who were weened on their earlier St. Etienne albums and have not tuned into Radio-trash in quite a long time. Although, St. Etienne makes radio friendly music, it would be insulting to throw St. Etienne songs in a large pool of radio-mediocrity. So, maybe it's better that they remain "undergound" even though their sound is far from being underground.