Search - Saint Etienne :: Smash the System

Great SE collection for beginners, good addition for fans

J. Pool | Atlanta, Ga USA | 09/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"_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."

Complete - from cover to cover

Tim Chapin | Madison, Wisconsin United States | 02/26/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you are a Saint Etienne fan, than this is for you. This 2 disc set is so well put together. I love the packaging as well - it's very complete, including all of their best tracks. It's not very easy to find in local music stores it seems, so here would be the place to order it."

A purchase to ponder

eradano | 12/21/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"it seems as if i've made it my mission in life to accumulate as much saint etienne stuff as i can so i recently purchased this album. there's only one bad thing about compilation albums and it's that they seem to miss the flow that you'd get on a regularly produced project. this holds true for the first disc even though it contains a few of my favs from the saints; with that said, it is a great introduction to their sound though. the second disc however, is a gem seeing as how it has that flow that the first one misses, a rarity indeed... any saint fan would love it i think."