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Aug 24, 2021 By Mark Redfern Photography by Elaine Constantine

British indie-pop trio Saint Etienne are releasing a new album, I’ve Been Trying to Tell You, on September 10 via Heavenly. It is accompanied by a film. Now they have shared the album’s second single, atmospheric slow-burner “Penlop,” via a video for it that is also a clip from the film and is a little bit NSFW. Watch it below.

The band’s Bob Stanley had this to say about the new single in a press release: “‘Penlop’ is one of my favorite songs on the album. Sarah’s vocal makes me think of a travel guide, walking you around your half-remembered memories of the late ’90s. Pete’s production on this is wonderful, I like the way it bursts wide open at the end, like someone breaking through from the past into the present day.”

Previously Saint Etienne shared the album’s first single, “Pond House,” via a video. “Pond House” was one of our Songs of the Week. The album and film are about “optimism, youth, and the late ’90s.”

Alasdair McLellan directed the film, which premieres at the BFI (British Film Institute) in London on September 3 and is followed by a weekend of Saint Etienne film screenings and Q&As. The album was recorded remotely, a first for the band, with each member in a different location no doubt due to the pandemic. Pete Wiggs was in Hove, Sarah Cracknell was in Oxford, and Bob Stanley was in Bradford. Film and TV composer Gus Bousfield also contributed to two songs on the album.

A previous press release explained the album’s concept in more detail: “The album was made largely from samples and sounds drawn from the years 1997-2001, a period that was topped and tailed by Labour’s election victory and the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers. Was the optimism of that era a lost golden age, or was it a period of naïvety, delusion and folly? The collective folk memory of any period differs from the lived reality. I’ve Been Trying to Tell You is an album about memory, how it works, how it tricks you and creates a dream-like state. It also taps into the way we think of our youth, a sense of place, and where we come from.”

The band members were each also quoted in the press release.

Bob Stanley: “To me it’s about optimism, and the late ’90s, and how memory is an unreliable narrator. Pete and Gus have done a properly amazing production job. I think it sounds gorgeous.”

Sarah Cracknell: “It’s the first sample driven album we’ve made since So Tough and it’s been a really refreshing experience, such fun! It’s both dreamy and atmospheric, late summer sounds.”

Pete Wiggs: “We’ve really pulled apart and dived deep into the samples; the concept and each of our interpretations of it have made this a very special sounding album, we hope you think so too.”

Director/photographer Alasdair McLellan also had this to say about the accompanying film: “My starting point was an interpretation of my memories from the time I first started to listen to Saint Etienne’s music. Of course, it is an interpretation of what I was doing then while looking back at it now. At that time, I was a bored teenager in a village near Doncaster, South Yorkshire; it was a place where very little happened. I now look back at that time as something quite idyllic—even the boredom seems idyllic—and a big part of its soundtrack was Saint Etienne.”

Saint Etienne’s last album was 2017’s Home Counties.

Read our 2017 print magazine interview with Saint Etienne.

Read our 2017 extended Q&A with Saint Etienne.

Saint Etienne UK Tour Dates:

11/18/2021 - Glasgow, St Lukes
11/19/2021 - Sunderland, to be announced
11/20/2021- London, Alexandra Palace Theatre
11/23/2021 - Bristol, Trinity
11/24/2021 - Birmingham, Institute
11/25/2021 - Saltaire, Victoria Hall
11/26/2021 - Liverpool, Grand Central Hall
11/27/2021- Hove, Old Market

The Films of Saint Etienne London Screening Series:

(Presented by Sonic Cinema at BFI Southbank.)

9/3/2021- I’ve Been Trying to Tell You (Premiere) + Q & A with Alasdair McLellan & Bob Stanley, NFT1
9/3/2021- This Is Tomorrow + intro by Bob Stanley & Paul Kelly, NFT2
9/4/2021- Asunder + intro by Esther Johnson & Bob Stanley, NFT2
9/4/2021- Finisterre + Q & A with Bob Stanley & Pete Wiggs, NFT 1
9/4/2021- How We Used to Live + Q & A with Pete Wiggs & Travis Elborough, NFT1
9/5/2021- Lawrence of Belgravia + Q & a with Paul Kelly & Lawrence, NFT1
9/5/2021 - What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day? + Q & A with Pete Wiggs & Paul Kelly, NFT1
9/5/2021- Saint Etienne: Shorts Programme + intro by Paul Kelly & Pete Wiggs, NFT2

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