For Fox Sake!

Join me in a world where everything is sort of London 1966-ish, we zoom around on stylish motor scooters from one affair of the heart to another, pausing only to admire our immaculate hair, try on even trendier outfits and learn the latest dance steps to try out later in an exclusive niterie.

Mesdames et messieurs, Saint Etienne Foxbase Alpha.

---

Released in 1991 Foxbase Alpha was the brainchild of Pete Stanley and Bob Wiggs, indie dudes who harked back to a pretend golden age of sophistipop, whilst playing with very current dub, pop and dancefloor sounds of the time.

As a particularly unsophisticated young troglodyte in 1991, I hated it*. I wanted grunting dullards bellowing swear words at each other in American accents and squalling guitars, the last thing I needed to hear was tunes played by the sort of people who sounded like they had actual girlfriends and stuff. Yuk.

It took me years to grok that Saint Etienne were creating their own desirable little world, as a conceptual artistic statement and that we really were all welcome to turn up, tune in and groove along. Maybe years of intelligent interviews, a certain amount of lust and a (very) slowly growing maturity all contributed to me buying Foxbase Alpha 5 years ago.

That and the fact I read that the LP title was Stanley and Wiggs’ private code for a room containing hot chicks; LP = sold.

---

Foxbase Alpha has a strong quota of TV and movie soundbites, the best of which is the sampling of a French football programme for the opening ‘This Is Radio Etienne’, after all this is a band named after a French football team. The worst is the excruciating currency exchange record used on ‘Wilson’, which goes on for at least an hour during its’ allotted 1:59. Then in steps Neil Young**.

Well, Moira Lambert singing Saint Etienne’s cover of ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’, which is just divine. This is proper grown-up clever pop music, taking old Neil’s tune and switching it down the minor chord track. It really is a great rendition and I can never imagine getting tired of it.

My other two absolute favourites here are the longer tracks, ‘Carnt Sleep’ and ‘Stoned To say the Least’^. The latter is, Countdown sample apart, a wonderful, lithe bass-driven instrumental monster very much in the style Massive Attack reached 3 years later. The former is a dubbed-up, numb-but-delicate plea for love? closure? validation? I’m not sure. Sarah Cracknell’s vocals are beautifully poised and the instrumentation just perfect.

Elsewhere on Foxbase Alpha we can groove to the sophisti-pop strains of ‘Nothing Can Stop Us’, thrilling to Sarah Cracknell’s talkie bit at the beginning^^, again we are close on perfection here – I feel even more worldly and handsome while it plays. Apart from a bit of sodding about, the LP closes with the slightly ominous, storm-coming-over-the-horizon psych pop of ‘Like The Swallow’; ironically this sounds like Massive Attack would 7 years later!

Everyone loves a list song, right? well check out the spritely ‘Girl VII’ and you will not be disappointed, any song with the lines ‘If I hadn’t left you, suppose we’d still be lovers/ There’d still be fights and I’d ladder my tights’ – perfecto^*. I’m also rather fond of the French-pop-gone-nu-soul ‘Spring’, again more talkie talkie from Sarah Cracknell.

---

Okay, I’ll stop enthusing before someone needs to hose me down. Suffice to say, I have really fallen for Foxbase Alpha hard, only 30 years after the fact, it hasn’t dated a jot. I really love the world Wiggs and Stanley built here (Cracknell only joined the band fully after this LP) and it is sonically a lot more progressive and envelope-pushing than it often gets credit for. There are a lot of very intriguing musical ideas skittering along underneath a highly polished polished surface. Wiggs and Stanley produce this album superbly well.

Anyway, carnt sleep, I have to zoom off on my stylish motor scooter across London, I need to see a man about a French football team and do some relationship stuff with a sophisticated woman-type-person later.

1086 Down.

PS: The remade, more glam video for ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’, I don’t actually think it is as good, I prefer the more naïve version:

*without hearing it, obvs. In my usual very open-minded manner.

**I’ve altered the track order there for narrative purposes. It’s my blog, I am omnipotent-ish, I can do that.

^or ‘Stoned To Slay The Yeast’ as I semi-Spoonered the title to Mrs 1537 the other day. True story.

^^God, I love songs with talking bits in them!

^*et voila:

June 4th, 1989…
Primrose Hill, Staten Island, Chalk Farm, Massif Central
Gospel Oak, São Paolo, Boston Manor, Costa Rica
Arnos Grove, San Clemente, Tufnell Park, Gracetown
York Way, Videoton, Clerkenwell, Portobello, Maida Vale
Old Ford, Valencia, Kennington, Galveston, Holland Park
Studamer, Dollis Hill, Fougeres, London Fields
Bratislava, Haggerston, Lavínia, Canonbury, Alice Springs
Tooting, Graveney, Baffin Island, Pollard’s Hill, Winnepeg
Plumstead Common, Hyderabad, Silvertown, Buffalo
If I hadn’t left you, suppose we’d still be lovers
There’d still be the fights and I’d ladder my tights