It's been two years since Saint Etienne released their "electro-minimalist" album Sound of Water. Given that the band always seems to morph into something slightly different on each album, how will their new disc Finisterre sound? Has the band gone in a new direction or will they tread on familiar ground??

Well, Finisterre opens with the UK hit single "Action". It's wonderful bubble-gum pop and an excellent example of Saint Etienne at their best. I so wish this song would have come out in January so it could have been my theme song for the year:

Need to make it special;
Need to make it new;
Looking for the action,
Something more to do.

Underneath the pavement;
Towers in the clouds;
Gotta find the action;
Need a scene right now.

Chorus:
'Cos I've been searching for,
All the people I used to turn to and,
All the people who knew the answer,
Let's get the feeling again.

Back in sweet suburbia;
Middle of the road;
Looking for the action;
Everywhere I go.

Need to make it special;
Need to make it new;
Looking for the action;
Something more to do.

The next track - "Amateur" - is perhaps the most current sounding track of the album. Synth-heavy and of a definitely European lineage, the track's noisy beats thump underneath Sarah's clever rhymes. "Language Lab" is an instrumental showing off Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs' lounge-lizard side; indeed, this track could almost be from an Austin Powers soundtrack with its retro feel. "Summer Isle" follows and while it's a beautiful song, it's slow groove and minimal structure make it feel like a holdover from Sound of Water; so too with a track from later in the album "The More You Know". The song "Stop and Think It Over" - another slow tune - again harkens back to Saint Etienne's early days of So Tough or Good Humor. It shouldn't surprise you that the song "How We Live Now" is an update of "How We Used to Live" from Sound of Water. "Shower Scene" is an awesome (yet dated) dance tune that's as addictive as crackrock - expect to see it in movie soundtracks soon. "B92" and "New Thing" sound so much like Gary Numan or early Depeche Mode songs that it's positively scary. It's extreme electropop.

Perhaps the most troublesome song on the disc is the tune "Soft Like Me". It's a collaboration between Saint Etienne and the British female rapper MC Wildflower. Let me just say this: if you think white men can't rap, you should hear an English girl try to do it. This song is a train wreck - Sarah's lovely voice over Wildflower's "Cockney hood" rap. It's really awful - almost as bad as Mick Jagger and David Bowie's cover of "Dancing in the Street" - yet it's totally addictive at the same time. You can put this track in the same category with Chumbawumba's "Tubthumping" or Aqua's "Doctor Jones" -  songs you'd be totally embarrassed to admit that you like, but you just can't help it.

Also troublesome are the spoken-word intros to almost every song by British actor Michael Jayston. It's not that they're annoying - though some certainly are, like "Our Father, who art in Heaven... please stay there". Others are almost clever, like "the world began in Eden... and ended in Los Angeles". The problem is that Saint Etienne has done this before - on both Foxbase Alpha and So Tough. And in case you've missed the vibe in this review, it's fitting for the entire album. There's nothing wrong with Finisterre. I like it more and more with each play. It's a solid piece of popwork that breathlessly outclasses anything you're likely to hear on commercial radio these days. To paraphrase an old bumpersticker, a bad day with Saint Etienne is better than a good day with Britney. It's just that after a two-year hiatus, Saint Etienne's newest disc lacks direction. Instead of taking a little bit from this genre and a little bit from that genre and making something new of it - the band's traditional strength - Finisterre seems to pull bits and pieces from Saint Etienne's own past. Not that that's a bad thing mind you, I just would have hoped for more.