Saint Etienne - Continental

Although I'm sure this album was an after thought, it leaves some question in mind my as to the possibility of a "lost" albums worth of material. This, pulled together with the tracks from the 'He's On the Phone' single (which have the same production value as the exclusive tracks here), could have easily come together as one record. In the liner notes for 'Nice Price', Bob Stanley himself has referred to this period as the 'wilderness years'. I wonder if the band was having a crisis of direction. Certainly the period that came after this marked a complete departure from what, up until then, categorized Saint Etienne as more of an electro pop outfit rather than the indie pop cred of the subsequent records. It's a crying shame that tracks such a 'Sometime in Winter' were relegated to this obscure import-only jewel. Come on Bob; tell us more about the wilderness years, please?

Although CONTINENTAL, a Japan-only release, features tracks that appeared on Saint Etienne’s remix album, CASINO CLASSICS, or on various singles, but most are exclusive to this album. It’s a b-side dream, mixing the classy instrumental “Shad Thames” with songs led by Sarah Cracknell’s increasingly controlled voice. “Sometimes in Winter,” even with its underlying guitar growl, still manages to be cool and confident. The same goes for “Star,” which pumps up the rock bombast. On the Gary Numan cover, “Stormtrooper in Drag,” they deliver Europop that rivals the Pet Shop Boys in catchiness. In a sharp compare-and-contrast move, the dreamy “Down by the Sea” is followed by its equally dreamy (but more rhythmically frenetic) remix from PFM.