Editor’s Note: The Albumism staff has selected what we believe to be the 110 Best Albums of the 2010s, representing a varied cross-section of artists, genres, and styles. Click “Next Album” below to explore each album in the list or for easier navigation, view the full introduction & album index here.
SAINT ETIENNE | Home Counties
Heavenly (2017)
Selected by Quentin Harrison
Thoroughly elegant, casually cerebral, but always approachable, Saint Etienne’s sound continues to fascinate audiences the world over, bringing London―and Britain, more broadly―to those who cannot come to it. As encapsulated across their ninth and most recent album, the trio’s brand of British pop voyeurism has always had a way of turning the ordinary into something spectacular, reminding us of its common humanity. That skill has become even more meaningful in the wake of the post-Brexit fallout, the divide between London and the rest of Britain increasingly honed to a tragically killing edge. Home Counties is therefore a timely salve of an album, one that has Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs reaching back (and out) to the British suburban plains to show that the soul of England lives not just in London, but in its surrounding locales too.
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