Sound of Water - Saint Etienne
Sound of Water Image
Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 14
  2. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. 100
    Saint Etienne's latest album is masterful: fanatically detailed, intelligent and swimming in lovely melodies and delicious electronic bleeps... easily one of the year's standout albums. [#46, p.90]
  2. There are moments of pop pleasure here, surrounded by spare, languid electronica sections, vaguely reminiscent of the High Llamas.
  3. Although Sound of Water, Saint Etienne's fifth album, may not be as overtly clever as 1991's Foxbase Alpha or as thematically consistent as 1998's Good Humor, it is as subtle as an Antonio Carlos Jobim tune and as mysteriously satisfying as a lazy summer night.
  4. Saint Etienne has made an egregiously Cardigans-esque wrong turn, abandoning impeccable craft and Motown melodies for the breezy if aimless experimentation of its wildly uneven EPs.

See all 14 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. johnj
    10
    What a gorgeous and sophisticated pop album. Saint Etienne's best album, by far.
  2. robd
    8
    Very good. Their most sonically adventurous effort since So tough, although it reuires more attention. One of their best.