''Finisterre'' is the sixth studio album by English alternative dance band Saint Etienne, released on 7 October 2002 by Mantra Records. A double-disc deluxe edition was released on 3 May 2010 by

Heavenly Records Heavenly Recordings is a London-based independent record label founded by Jeff Barrett in 1990. Heavenly released the first albums from Saint Etienne, Beth Orton and Doves, and early singles by Manic Street Preachers. Current Heavenly artists ...

Background

Following two relatively uniform albums, ''

Good Humor Good Humor is a Good Humor-Breyers brand of ice cream started in Youngstown, Ohio, US, in the early 1920s with the Good Humor bar, a chocolate-coated ice cream bar on a stick sold from ice cream trucks and retail outlets. It was a fixture in Am ...

'' and '' Sound of Water'', ''Finisterre'' contains a wide mixture of sounds and styles (as would its successor '' Tales from Turnpike House''). The album returned to the inclusion of vocal interludes between songs as last heard on their album '' So Tough'' and a more angular, electronic sound, particularly on tracks such as "Action", "Shower Scene" and "New Thing". "Language Lab" and "Summerisle" recall the ambient style of ''Sound of Water'', while "Stop and Think It Over" would not have been out of place on ''Good Humor'' or its predecessor, ''

Tiger Bay Tiger Bay ( cy, Bae Teigr) was the local name for an area of Cardiff which covered Butetown and Cardiff Docks. Following the building of the Cardiff Barrage, which dams the tidal rivers, Ely and Taff, to create a body of water, it is re ...

''. The vocal interludes were supplied by

Michael Jayston Michael James (born 29 October 1935), known professionally as Michael Jayston, is an English actor. He played Nicholas II of Russia in the film ''Nicholas and Alexandra'' (1971). He has also made many television appearances, which have include ...

's narration as featured in the film released to accompany the album, also called ''Finisterre''. The film was directed by Paul Kelly and

Kieran Evans Kieran John Evans (born 8 February 1969) is a Welsh film director and screenwriter whose work includes music videos, film and documentaries. His 2012 film '' Kelly + Victor'', produced by Janine Marmot, saw Evans awarded the BAFTA Award for Ou ...

and was born out of visuals used to accompany certain tracks from the album shown during their live shows. The film debuted at a sold-out show in October 2002 at the Royal Festival Hall on London's Southbank, and was re-released to select screens in 2005. It is currently available on DVD. The album sleeve features a photograph of the East London

tower block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdicti ...

Ronan Point Ronan Point was a 22-storey tower block in Canning Town in Newham, East London, that partly collapsed on 16 May 1968, only two months after it had opened. A gas explosion blew out some load-bearing walls, causing the collapse of one entire cor ...

shortly after it collapsed in 1968 with the loss of four lives. Nitsuh Abebe of

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

scored the album 7.6 out of ten and wrote that " e big comeback on ''Finisterre''s part is that they're tugging those strings again, confidently", citing "B92" as a highlight. However, Abebe criticised "Action" and "New Thing" as "just begging for the bigger kick drums that would turn them into flat-out stompers."

Track listing

Previously unreleased tracks are "So Mystified", "White Dress", "Stop and Think It Over" (

Kid Loco Jean-Yves Prieur, Kid Loco is a French electronic musician, DJ, remixer and producer. He was born on 19 June 1964 in Antony, Hauts-de-Seine, France. Allmusic considers his style to be similar to Air and Dimitri from Paris. His best-known albu ...

Mix). "There There My Brigadier" was never released commercially, but given away on a promotional single at a '' Doctor Who'' convention in 2003 for a later-abandoned album of Dr Who-related remixes.

B-sides

; from "Action" * "Anderson Unbound" * "7 Summers" * "Action" (Mr Joshua Edit) * "Action" (

DJ Tiësto A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...

Remix) * "Action" (Laub Remix) ; from "Soft Like Me" / "Shower Scene" * "Gimp Crisis" * "Time and Tide" * "Shock Corridor" * "Soft Like Me" (Mr Joshua Mix) * "Abby I Hardly Knew You" * "Soft Like Me" (K.O.W. Radiophonic Rework) * "New Thing"

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2002 albums Saint Etienne (band) albums