Saint Etienne - 'Burnt Out Car'
I must cop to being a bit confused when I saw this pop up on the new release schedule. "Isn't that a bit of an old one?" I thought - and then I went a-googlin' and discovered it was a re-release to tie in with their new Greatest Hits album, which makes this at least their third singles collection by my reckoning. Not that you can ever have too many copies of 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' or 'Who Do You Think You Are', mind.
(Can't find a video. Let's pretend I've forgotten.)
But since that's the reason it's being released, I thought it might be interesting to review it in terms of how it fits into the general Saint Etienne canon. From what I gather, this is quite the lost and buried fan favourite song (although not THAT obscure, since it was included on the 'Smash the System' collection), noteworthy for production work from a pre-Xenomania Brian Higgins.
Sarah Cracknell's delicate and ethereal vocals are present and correct, though the song is a bit more straight-up dance than some of their other, more idiosyncratic work.
What rescues everything and lifts it above the mundane is the juxtaposition of the intense, chirpy, nightclub-friendly backing and the decidedly less jolly lyrics. It's quite easy to overlook this on first listen, but there's a depth to the song that isn't apparent straightaway.
I don't know if I'd go as far to say this is up there with 'You're In A Bad Way' or 'Nothing Can Stop Us' or any of the handful of mainstream Saint Etienne hits that people tend to name when listing their favourites, but I think it's still a clever and appealing pop song which deserves another crack at a larger audience.
And fair play to them for publicising the Greatest Hits with a lesser-known song than going for the obvious strategy of re-releasing 'He's On The Phone' or something like that.
Download: Out now
CD Released: September 22nd
(Steve Perkins)
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