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Mar 22, 2017 By Christopher Roberts Saint Etienne

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Beloved British indie-pop trio Saint Etienne have announced a new album, Home Counties, and shared its first single, “Heather.” Home Counties is due out June 2 via Heavenly. Below is “Heather,” followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art, as well as some U.K. tour dates.

Shawn Lee produced Home Counties, with support from Augustus (Kero Kero Bonito), Carwyn Ellis (Colorama, Edwyn Collins), Robin Bennett (The Dreaming Spires), Richard X (Girls On Top / Black Melody), and Gerard Johnson (Denim, Yes). It was recorded in central London, with the band members commuting to the studio every day for six weeks.

A press release describes the concept of the album, which centers on where the band grew up and the area’s reputation and relationship with the rest of England: “The Home Counties are an embarrassing place to come from. The name itself suggests that somehow the rest of Britain isn’t ‘home,’ not even London. It’s where John Major’s vision of cricket and warm beer was meant to exist, but it’s not really like that at all, and it never has been. The Home Counties are a land of bootleg DVDs at car boot sales, Waitrose bags for life, parking disputes, bored teenagers in semis inventing ghost stories, squaddies causing trouble at all-you-can-eat buffets, train drivers in eyeliner and suburban rebels, a place where Tony Hancock and Spike Milligan drew inspiration. Saint Etienne grew up in the Home Counties. Here are sixteen new songs they have written about a day in the life of this doughnut of shires that ring the capital, punctuated by bursts of BBC radio to remind you what time it is, and all connected by train journeys - main lines, branch lines, commutes, escapes.”

The press release adds that the song “Whyteleafe” “imagines what might have happened if David Bowie had remained David Jones of Bromley, stuck with a desk job.”

Saint Etienne will be touring the U.S. in September and October and those dates will be announced shortly.

Home Counties Tracklist:

1. The Reunion
2. Something New
3. Magpie Eyes
4. Whyteleafe
5. Dive
6. Church Pew Furniture Restorer
7. Take It All In
8. Popmaster
9. Underneath the Apple Tree
10. Out of My Mind
11. After Hebden
12. Breakneck Hill
13. Heather
14. Sports Report
15. Train Drivers In Eyeliner
16. Unopened Fan Mail
17. What Kind of World
18. Sweet Arcadia
19. Angel of Woodhatch

Saint Etienne U.K. Tour Dates:

May 26 - Hebden Bridge, UK -Trades Club
May 27 - Oxford, UK - Common People Festival
May 31 - Barcelona, SPA - Primavera
June 2 - London, UK - Royal Festival Hall
June 3 - Cardiff, UK - Tramshed
June 4 - Birmingham, UK - Town Hall
June 6 - Bexhill, UK - De La Warr Pavillion
June 8 - Newcastle, UK - Sage
June 9 - Edinburgh - UK - Queens Hall
June 10 - Sheffield, UK - City Hall
June 11 - Manchester, UK - RNMC Concert Hall
August 20 - Glanusk Park - Green Man Festival

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