Tales From Turnpike House
- Saint Etienne
- Band Name: Saint Etienne
- Record Label: Savoy Jazz / Sanctuary
- Release Date: Jan 24, 2006
- Critic Score
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100Such sentiments are couched in consistently wonderful songwriting, surf's-up vocal harmonies... and lavish electro-pop.
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An endlessly enjoyable sophisticated pop album.
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Turnpike is Saint Etienne's strongest record in years.
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The album comes out as their most organic since 1998's Good Humor; even the tracks driven by programming are warm in comparison to vast chunks of both Sound of Water and Finisterre.
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90The trio has fine-tuned its sound, making it more complex and compelling. [14 Jan 2006]
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90This is gorgeous record that starts great and gets better with each additional hearing.
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If it's pop craftsmanship you are after, few can equal this melancholy concept album and the sheer virtuosity of its hooks. [22 Jan 2006]
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SE are as champagne-fizzy as ever. [10 Feb 2006, p.137]
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80Their most contemporarily relevant and best album since 'Fox Base Alpha.'
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80If Saint Etienne are finally growing up, this wistful adulthood becomes them. [Jul 2005, p.96]
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80It's as good a collection as Saint Etienne has ever released. [#71, p.111]
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78The most fully-realized thing-- if not the most exciting one-- the band has released since 1994's Tiger Bay.
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75It's so London-specific that it almost requires an England-to-English translation for us Yanks. [Feb 2006, p.92]
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Succinct, tiny pop gems like 'Milk Bottle Symphony' and 'Relocate' are beautifully realised. [11 Jun 2005, p.67]
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70Well before David Essex provides a gruff guest turn on Relocate, you are entirely won over by this record, brimming with music from a postcode synonymous with class. [Jul 2005, p.106]
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70Displays gorgeous layering amid catchy pop, mysterious Spanish acoustic guitar, and self-effacing lyrics. [Mar 2006, p.118]
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As varied in musical styles as its disparate cast of characters suggests.
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A modest triumph.
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Few of the tracks hav[e] enough energy or personality to break out of the enveloping lull created by perfectly crafted arrangements and manicured vocals. [#12, p.93]
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60Not much happens, which seems to be the point. [Jan/Feb 2006, p.96]
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Overall the LP falters too often.
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30Three tracks in you realise with horror that [it] is a concept album. Worse, it's a concept album of kitchen-sink dramas about Tony The Milkman and Doris The Housewife set to Saint Etienne's dated indie disco. [Jul 2005, p.120]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 19 out of 20
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Mixed: 1 out of 20
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Negative: 0 out of 20
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JaimeZ10With any dubt about it, this is the first conceptual album from Saint Etienne and the best. Ethereal, danceable, nocturnal.
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JeffT9
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KipK9