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I am late for everything, and hearing new music that is 8 months old is no different. I love the occaisional sprinkling of
Saint Etienne: I never feast on them, but every once in a while when partial, I can't get enough of their flirtatious melodies - a style that projects beyond the mundane and into kitchen-sink kitsch bliss. The supernatural promenade trance of
Avenue is a good example of their self-aware juxtoposition of beauty and elegance with blatant crapness, formed by imagination alone. A more literal trance offering was their Paul van Dyk collaboration
Tell Me Why, which remains their highest credited chart placing at number 7.
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They hit their commercial peak in 1995 with the unforgettably romantic
He's On The Phone, a collaboration with Gina G's nemesis Steve Roadway, and have never struck a chord with UK radio or record buyers since.
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In 2009, a spirited return to the UK top 40 looked irresistably iminent with their sugar-fused Richard X collaboration
Method of Modern Romance (a verse dedicated to gaydar was curiously absent). Sarah Cracknell's vocals are technically limited and yet have their own acquired perfection: like carelessly spilled red wine, they stain forever. Suffice to say, the syngeing electronic tingles dangling together with Cracknell's breathless composire made a heroic number 56 and lord knows if these forces shall ever combine again.
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