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1[[quoteright:344:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Saint-Etienne-feature_1889.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:344:From L-to-R: Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs]]
3
4Saint Etienne is an IndiePop group from UsefulNotes/{{London}} who are sometimes described as making "[[AlternativeDance indie dance]]" music. The band was founded in 1991 by ex-music journalists Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, who named it after a French football team, and they originally had rotating guest singers until Sarah Cracknell joined them permanently, midway through production of their first album.
5
6Their most famous single is their first, a cover of the Music/NeilYoung song [[Music/AfterTheGoldRush "Only Love Can Break Your Heart"]] – which was [[BlackSheepHit not sung by Sarah]], iron given that she is generally considered the band's face otherwise.
7
8Most of their music can accurately be described as a love song dedicated to London, the city in which the band is based, despite one of their major influences being Northern Soul music.
9
10An incomplete discography:
11* ''Foxbase Alpha'' (1991)
12* ''So Tough'' (1993)
13* ''Tiger Bay'' (1994)
14* ''Good Humor'' (1998)
15* ''The Misadventures of Saint Etienne'' (1999) (Soundtrack)
16* ''Sound of Water'' (2000)
17* ''Finisterre'' (2002)
18* ''Tales from Turnpike House'' (2005)
19* ''What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day?'' (2006) (Soundtrack)
20* ''Foxbase Beta'' (2009) (Remix Album of their debut, ''Foxbase Alpha'')
21* ''Words and Music by Saint Etienne'' (2012)
22* ''Home Counties'' (2017)
23
24!!Tropes
25* AgeProgressionSong: "Over The Border".
26* AlternativeDance: often classified as "Indie Dance", which can be considered a subgenre of AlternativeDance.
27* BalladOfX: "Ballade de Saint Etienne".
28* ConceptAlbum: ''Tales from Turnpike House'', which features various stories about the residents in a neighbourhood somewhere in London. Also ''Words and Music by Saint Etienne'' is about music fandom.
29* [[TheCoverChangesTheMeaning The Cover Changes... Almost Everything, Actually]]: "I'm Too Sexy". The story goes that when they got into the studio to record the song, they couldn't remember how it goes, so they [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments made it up on the spot]].
30* CoverVersion: Quite a few, including songs by Music/DavidBowie, Teenage Fanclub, Music/ScottWalker, and, famously, Music/NeilYoung ("Only Love Can Break Your Heart").
31* EverythingIsAnInstrument: "People Get Real" includes a jet engine (Heavenly Records boss Jeff Barrett is credited with "playing" it). Given that it appears prominently in the middle eight, it's effectively the song's lead solo.
32* [[SixthRanger Fourth Ranger]]: Long-serving backing singer Debsey Wykes.
33* GreatestHitsAlbum: Several, but the two-disc ''Smash The System: Singles And More'' is the best - not least because of its Neapolitan-ice-cream-colored cover.
34* GrowingUpSucks: Oh god, "Teenage Winter".
35* HymnToMusic: A favourite theme, most famously employed for "Join Our Club" and most of ''Words and Music by Saint Etienne''.
36* IndecipherableLyrics: the repeated, distorted refrain in "Girl VII". Producer Ian Catt and remixer Richard X may be the only people outside the band who know for sure what it says - and Pete Wiggs claims he's forgotten. Lyric sites give it as "Carrie's got a boyfriend", but that may just be {{Fanon}}.
37* ListingCities: In one song on ''Foxbase Alpha'' entitled ''Girl VII'', Sarah starts listing London neighbourhoods and a few other cities.
38* LyricalDissonance: The relatively upbeat "Goodnight Jack" tells the story of a woman who, after her man says he only wants to be her friend, runs him over and escapes the scene of the crime.
39* MurderBallad: "Like A Motorway". Also "Goodnight, Jack".
40* NotAMorningPerson: The narrator in "Split Screen" says she is the one. That is, NOT a morning person.
41* OneWomanSong: Erica America off ''Good Humor''.
42* {{Retraux}}: They like to play with this in both the music and its packaging.
43* SelfDemonstratingSong: About half way through "California Snow Story", Sarah says "I think I'll just let the music play", and that's exactly what happens, as the second half is entirely instrumental.
44* SelfDeprecation: Their sleevenotes do this a lot.
45* ShoutOut: Their songs are so packed with these, it took the crowdsourcing power of the internet to decipher the dense web of references.
46* SiblingTriangle: "Sylvie", sung from the POV of Sarah's character towards her younger sister (the titular Sylvie). She warns Sylvie not to flirt too much:
47--> "Sylvie, girl, I'm a very patient person,
48--> But I'll have to shut you down,
49--> If you don't give up your flirting.
50--> Leave him alone, ''cause I know he loves me.
51--> Leave him alone, ''cause he tells me he loves me."
52* SongOfSongTitles: "Popular".
53* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Pete Wiggs on "I'm Too Sexy".
54* TwoDecadesBehind: Exactly this time lag is invoked for an unnamed place possibly in Idaho in regard to Los-Angeles
55-->In twenty years this place will be
56-->Just like L.A. today.
57* WithLyrics: The previously instrumental "Stoned To Say The Least" gained lyrics twenty years later.

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