Thirty-five years after turning British melancholy into a dance floor, Saint Etienne look back without anger and forward without fear. International (Heavenly, September 5, 2025) is their 13th studio album and, according to themselves, their last: a “leaving party” that sounds like confetti in slow motion, an embrace between old friends and that tempered beat that the trio – Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs – turned into a common language. The album is announced as their discographic closure, not as a sentimental breakup: they will remain friends, they just don’t feel the need to “go on forever” anymore. ( Pitchfork)
The opening track was “Glad”, a single co-written and co-produced by Tom Rowlands (The Chemical Brothers) with the luminous guitar of Jez Williams (Doves). Three minutes of pop that hums the simplest and most difficult idea: to find small joys at the hand of larger work. It is symptomatic: here the groove does not run over; it accompanies(Pitchfork).
A choral album that sounds like a shared memory
International is woven as an album-collage of friendships: Confidence Man, Erol Alkan, Vince Clarke, Nick Heyward, Paul Hartnoll (Orbital), plus Rowlands himself and Tim Powell (ex-Xenomania) spreading brilliance between cuts. It’s not a collection of featurings, it’s a postcard signed by an entire scene. “Brand New Me”, a duet between Sarah Cracknell and Janet Planet, combines Saint Etienne’s 1991 chic with Confidence Man’s festival sass with astonishing naturalness. “Two Lovers” beats with the minimal elegance of Vince Clarke, and “Take Me To The Pilot” draws melodic arcs with the architecture of Hartnoll. ( Heavenly Recordings)
The sequence works as an emotional map: “Dancing Heart” and “He’s Gone” (hand in hand with Tim Powell) support the group’s adult pop vein; “The Go Betweens” (duet with Nick Heyward) winks at that British tradition they always combed against the grain; and “Sweet Melodies” (Erol Alkan) reminds that the track can also look at the floor. Closes “The Last Time”, a farewell ballad that dampens the edges without being stuffy. Perfect playlist for that blue hour when it’s no longer daytime, but not nighttime either(Heavenly Recordings).
Solemn farewell? Better a polite rave
If their previous The Night (2024) explored the ambient and nocturnal side of the band, International prefers dancing in slippers: elegant, close, with just the right BPM so that nostalgia does not weigh down. The Anglo-Saxon press has read it like this: a “retirement dance party” with invited pop royalty, more celebration than elegy. And, beware, it is not postureo: under the glitter there is method, and under the method, emotion(Financial Times).
Why it matters
Saint Etienne always understood pop as urban and sentimental cartography: sampling, memory, public transport, a refrain that accompanies you by the hand. International condenses this ethic without turning it into a museum. It is the band that did not rust in nostalgia because it learned to update it; that grew older without asking for forgiveness for dancing. And now that they say “so far”, they do it as they lived: inviting more people to the party.(The Guardian)
Quick card (for collectors)
- Title: International
- Artist: Saint Etienne
- Label: Heavenly Recordings
- Publication date: September 5, 2025
- Featured collaborations: Tom Rowlands (Chemical Brothers), Jez Williams (Doves), Vince Clarke, Nick Heyward, Confidence Man, Erol Alkan, Paul Hartnoll (Orbital), Tim Powell (Xenomania).
- Key tracks: “Glad”, “Brand New Me”, “Two Lovers”, “The Last Time”.
- Official Tracklist (12): Glad – Dancing Heart – The Go Betweens – Sweet Melodies – Save It For A Rainy Day – Fade – Brand New Me – Take Me To The Pilot – Two Lovers – Why Are You Calling – He’s Gone – The Last Time(Heavenly Recordings)
