Saint Etienne

Saint Etienne ( SEIN eh-TEE-en) is an English band from Greater London, formed in 1990. The band consists of Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs. Commonly associated with the indie dance scene of the 1990s, their music blends club culture with 1960s pop and other disparate influences. Their debut album, Foxbase Alpha, was released to critical acclaim in 1991, featuring their most enduring hits "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" and "Nothing Can Stop Us". It was followed by So Tough (1993), with the number twelve single "You're in a Bad Way", and the techno folk experiment of Tiger Bay (1994); both albums reached the top-ten. Their early period was rounded out by the gold-certified compilation Too Young to Die: Singles 1990–1995, producing the band's highest-charting single, "He's on the Phone" with Étienne Daho. The band embraced indie pop on Good Humor (1998), with its lead single "Sylvie" reaching number twelve. By the new millennium, Saint Etienne had pivoted towards ambient music on Sound of Water (2000), while Finisterre (2002) and Tales From Turnpike House (2005) distilled these stylistic diversions and a return to their early influences. The 2010s, with Words and Music (2012) and Home Counties (2017), saw a contemporary update of their sound. The band incorporated samples for the first time in nearly two decades on I've Been Trying to Tell You (2021), which became their highest-charting album since 1994 at number fourteen. The band's name comes from the French football club AS Saint-Étienne.