"I've been trying to tell you", Saint Etienne's new release

Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, it’s never been too difficult to slot Saint Etienne into a very English pigeonhole: the occasional indie-dance banger, a detached but warm undertow and an all-encompassing adoration of pop which understands that Who Do You Think You Are? and Only Love Can Break Your Heart are equally wondrous. Thirty years after their debut album, maybe it’s time to overturn the old order.

Before it takes hold — and take hold it most surely does — I've Been Trying To Tell You is a surprisingly harsh-sounding collage of seemingly unrelated sounds. Indeed, in a plan conceived before lockdown. Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs and an engagingly quivery Sarah Cracknell recorded in separate studios, convening only via Zoom. The multi-layered concept is a quixotic, politically charged, dream­like attempt to recapture the optimistic national mood between Tony Blair sweeping to power in May 1997 and the 9/11 terror attacks. It’s also the sound­track to an Alasdair McLellan-directed travelogue film, where the only dialogue is taken from ’90s Saint Etienne songs.

And there are cunningly deployed samples, seeking to transport the listener back to the late-’90s, in terms of feel and memory, rather than jukebox. 

The ’97-9/11 period remains tantalisingly out of reach, so embracing the precise concept requires an almighty leap of listener faith, and little wonder even Stanley describes it as both “high” and “pretentious”. All the same, as an album, I've Been Trying To Tell You works wonderfully on many levels. Those harsh first impressions give way to something altogether more beautiful, from the moment Music Again finds Cracknell gliding like peak-period Enya, to the irresistible, super-catchy Penlop.