Saint Etienne
International
Release Date: Sep 5, 2025
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: Heavenly
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Album Review: International by Saint Etienne
Satisfactory, Based on 5 Critics
Based on rating 4.5
Beloved trio sign off with a final album of impeccable pop sensibilities that leave the contrasting emotions of a lump in the throat and a smile on the face After 35 years of bewitching pop vignettes it is time, finally, to say "au revoir" to Saint Etienne. Theirs is a fine discography, with barely a dip in productivity or quality as they tell the best suburban English stories. Happily that form is continued to the end with their swansong.
Based on rating 7/10
The long-time trio of Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley, and Pete Wiggs have decided to bow out on their terms. Saint Etienne have been acclaimed from the get-go, with their earliest 90s albums, Foxbase Alpha and So Tough, introducing their endearing exercises in soulful indie pop. Three decades later, the pair of meditative 2020s albums, I've Been Trying to Tell You and The Night, both showcase the band's thoughtful, downtempo side.
Based on rating 1/10
Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but calling it a coincidence would be overlooking that Saint Etienne don’t just create pop music, they obsess over it. They are music archeologists, curators, and historians, parsing the esthetics and minutiae like botanists in a rainforest. What’s more, Saint Etienne‘s very career got off the ground with a brilliantly danceable cover of Neil Young‘s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”.
Opinion: Absolutly essential
Do You Believe In Magic? Those five words, borrowed from The Lovin' Spoonful and serving as the motto of Heavenly Recordings, are repeated, emphatically, throughout Saint Etienne's 1992 Italo House single Join Our Club. More than merely a question, they posed a challenge, a gauntlet thrown down. International by Saint Etienne continues this legacy with its sophisticated pop-electronic fusion. The particular magic in which Saint Etienne believe is the magic of POP.
Opinion: Very Good
Saint Etienne's 13th and final album 'International' is an explosively uplifting pop album full of feel-good dance grooves and synth sparkle. Saint Etienne remain friends after 35 years of recording together but feel they should not keep on recording, instead to go out with a bang, which International certainly achieves. Their 13th and final album does not remotely mourn their passing, but instead keeps their head up high with a playful departure.
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