Air Etienne: Now Boarding

A reverse reflection on the music of Saint Etienne, from International (2025) to Foxbase Alpha (1991)

On September 5, 2025, Saint Etienne released International, their final studio album. After more than three decades of pop alchemy, in which the trio of Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley, and Pete Wiggs blurred past and present and played with memory and melody, their catalogue is now complete. What better time for a reflection on their words, music, and influence than now?

Air Etienne: INTNL → ALPHA is a series of reflections in reverse, tracing the story of Saint Etienne and my relationship with their music back to the beginning. Starting in 2025 with International and moving in reverse through their discography, I’ll spend the next several months rewinding the tape, so to speak, to peel back the layers, former lovers, and London conversations until arriving at Foxbase Alpha in 1991.

Why backwards? Why not? Saint Etienne have never been a band to move in a straight line. Saint Etienne’s music has always been about more than the records themselves. It’s about context, memory, mood, and the way certain sounds can place you in a time or a feeling instantly. Their albums have been a soundtrack for both lived experience and an imagined nostalgia. Working through their catalogue in reverse feels like the most natural way to honour that sensibility.

This flight from present to past may have some detours along the way. The aim is for monthly touchdowns, but I can't guarantee that there won’t be weather delays, missed connections, and the occasional lost bag. But we’ll get through it all with good humor—as only Saint Etienne can.

We’ll be airborne with my first impressions of International very soon, and from there, I’ll focus on each of their other albums in reverse chronology, sometimes through the lens of how it fits within their career, sometimes through the lens of what it has meant to me personally. I’ll also be curating an ongoing playlist under the same title, which will gather songs from each record as we pass through them, forming its own kind of unofficial travelogue at the end.

Welcome abroad. We’re cleared for takeoff.

Saint Etienne (L-R): Sarah Cracknell, Pete Wiggs, Bob Stanley [credit: Rob Baker Ashton]

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