Saint Etienne - Like the Swallow

It's out of wild roses she made a bed. A stony pillow for her head.

Album: Foxbase Alpha [debut album]
Recorded: London
Genre: Indie Pop, Alternative Dance, House
Album Release: September 16th 1991
Length: 7:42
Producer: Saint Etienne
Vocalist: Sarah Cracknell [age 25]
Label: Heavenly Recordings

Official Audio

Charts, Streams & Sales

Spotify: Over 250 thousand
YouTube Music: Over 25 thousand

Credits

Drum machine, sampler, synthesizer

Details

• Saint Etienne make forward thinking, innovative, genre-bending music from London that encapsulates what it's like to live in a big city and slots in next to Primal Scream's - Screamadelica. Made at the start of the '90s, the record sounds nothing like the '80s. It had its sights set on the possibility of a new decade in a way that happens to acts from large urban centres. 
  
  The instrumentation is a mix of synthesizers and samplers. The band originally intended to feature a revolving door of female vocalists but were so impressed with Sarah Cracknell's performance on 'Nothing Can Stop Us' that she became a full time member. 
  
  Saint Etienne's work also mixes spoken word sections with singing, which creates a dream-like effect of life happening around you. 
  
  
• Records in the alternative dance genre would frequently be made to replicate the experience of taking drugs, complete with the euphoric highs and mellow lows that would entail. 'Like the Swallow' is the comedown on Foxbase Alpha and starts with a long, ambient instrumental section that changes into a more traditional song halfway, before descending back down.

'As for the state of British pop, I think we need more tack and more glamour. Less scruffy, dirty bands. It's very sad when a band like 4 Non-Blondes who are very incredibly boring and non-glamorous can get in the top 10. There's not enough bands on Top of the Pops with real images, who do camp dance routines and wear matching outfits.' (Sarah Cracknell, Melody Maker (1993))

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