Tales from Turnpike House [Deluxe Edition] [2 CD]

by Saint Etienne

Overview

No matter the associates or variables involved, a Saint Etienne album is always going to end up sounding just like a Saint Etienne album, even if it's a little different from what came before it. On Tales from Turnpike House, the group gets two productions from Xenomania (Girls Aloud, Sugababes), several vocal arrangements from Tony Rivers (the Castaways, Harmony Grass) and son, some songwriting and vocal contributions from the misunderstood David Essex ("Rock On," "Stardust"), and assorted things from faces old and new. The album comes out as their most organic since 1998's Good Humor; even the tracks driven by programming are warm in comparison to vast chunks of both Sound of Water and Finisterre. The concept -- a day in the life of fictional characters who live in a house that does indeed exist -- allows for a range of material that's as broad as what can be heard on any other Saint Etienne album. The glitzy dance-pop of "Stars Above Us" ("Stars above us, cars below us/Nothing can touch us, baby"), for example, precedes the ruminative "Teenage Winter," containing an all-too-sharp expression of the resisted shift away from adolescent fanaticism ("And in the charity shop...not much left on the doorstep recently/Something to do with eBay, Johnny reckons/He's bidding on it now, for a Subbuteo catalog '81-'82/He'll win it, put it in a drawer and forget he ever bought it"). Though the other dancefloor-ready songs -- the sleek, silken "A Good Thing" and the sweetly lacerating "Lightning Strikes Twice" -- have major presence, the gentler moments, thriving on easy-to-miss intricacies and enlivening vocal arrangements (the Rivers men are astute Beach Boys disciples), are especially generous with their charms. [A two-CD digitally remastered Deluxe Edition of Tales from Turnpike House was released in 2017, featuring 16 bonus tracks on the second disc.] ~ Andy Kellman

Product Details

Release Date:	07/07/2017
Label:	Heavenly / Pias
UPC:	5414939956836
Rank:	81396

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Sun in My Morning
2. Milk Bottle Symphony
3. Lightning Strikes Twice
4. Slow Down at the Castle
5. A Good Thing
6. Side Streets
7. Last Orders for Gary Stead
8. Stars Above Us
9. Relocate
10. The Birdman of EC1
11. Teenage Winter
12. Goodnight

Disc 2

13. Murder in E Minor
14. Take Me Home (On a Pushbike)
15. Another Cup of Coffee
16. School Run
17. You Can Judge a Book by Its Cover
18. Who Pays the Rent
19. Woodhenge
20. Got a Job
21. Must Be More
22. Holiday Song
23. The Leyton Art Inferno
24. Missing Persons Bureau
25. Inside the Hive
26. Aqualad
27. Book Norton
28. Quiet Essex

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Saint Etienne   Primary Artist
David Essex   Primary Artist
Shawn Lee   Help
Sarah Cracknell   Vocals
Nick Coler   Help
Tim Powell   Help
Ian Catt   Help
Hugh McDowell   Help
Brian Higgins   Help
Johnny Chandler   Help
Jo Fraser   Help

Technical Credits

Tony Rivers   Vocal Arrangement
Christopher Neil   Composer
Sarah Cracknell   Composer,Performer,Group Member
Tim Powell   Mixing
Timothy Powell   Composer
David Essex   Composer
Ian Catt   Mixing,Composer,Producer,String Arrangements
Saint Etienne   Producer
Debsey Wykes   Composer
Tony Rivers & The Castaways   Vocal Arrangement
Xenomania   Composer,Producer
Guy Davie   Mastering
Bob Stanley   Composer,Performer
Anthony Rivers   Vocal Arrangement
Pete Wiggs   Composer,Performer,Group Member
David Cook   Composer
Mark Waterfield   Composer
Lora Findlay   Artwork,Cover Design
Lawrence Oakley   Composer
Simon Wilkinson   Composer
Michael Rutherford   Composer
Derek Cracknell   Composer
Waterfield   Composer
Shawn Mahan   Composer
James Oakley   Composer
Robert Andrew Shukman   Composer