Tiger Bay (Deluxe Edition)

Album Review

After three years (and two albums) of stunning development, Saint Etienne's disco-llision of '60s pop, '70s dance, and '90s club reached the peak by which they are still judged, with an album that is alternately heartwarming, heartbreaking, electrifying, and impossibly captivating. From the dramatic opener, "Urban Clearway," to the mysteriously Kraftwerk-ian "Like a Motorway" and on through "Pale Movie" (which could make Valentino weep), Tiger Bay is everything that two generations of post-Beatles wannabes have labored to create but have always been too in awe to complete: a melding of mood with momentum and emotion with eccentricity, and an endless succession of divine verses sliding into sad and sexy hooks. Tapping veins of nostalgic romance that bring a tear to the eye before you even know what the lyric is (once you do know, you're a goner, no questions asked), the tracks then explode out of rhythms that could make a dead dog dance. Tiger Bay is alternately seductive, silly, and sassy. But it was also constructed with such an eye for sensuous detail that any attempt whatsoever to toy with the track listing can only shatter the crystal.