Saint Etienne - Method of Modern Love / This is Tomorrow (Heavenly)
3/5
By: Stephen Maughan
Saint Etienne have a new compilation coming out, and these days it's expected to include a new song with the "best" of your songs and Cracknel and Co. have decided to make it their poppiest song for at least 10 years.
'Method of Modern Love' will gently spin around your head all day. At first it will be harmless gentle humming as you wait in the rain at the bus stop, but slowly you will grit your teeth when you find you can't sleep at night with Sarah Cracknell's sweet dreamy "wooo woo woo woohs" swinging in your head long after midnight. Still, no doubt it will do the trick and both housewives and dazed clubbers will order the best of compilation London Conversations (even if some of them hadn't heard of them before, but think it sounds a bit like Kylie with sweeter grooves).
Far more interesting is the B-Side, a reworking of 'This is Tomorrow', the title of their rewarding 2007 documentary. Gone is the 60 piece orchestra and choir that featured when they originally performed it at the Royal Festival Hall, and in its place is a tight and refined production by Richard X; the whole thing oozes with that kind of smooth cocktail bar confidence associated with late Roxy Music records as Cracknell reminds us that "Something new, people will always criticise".
Both songs are far from the greatness of 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' or 'Who Do You Think You Are?', but that's not really the point. The songs fit perfectly together on 7 inch (the cd includes more remixes), and may well remind you that there is a place for a band that refuses to acknowledge the last days of disco.
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