What is your favorite song on Saint Etienne's "Tiger Bay" (combined UK+US ed.)

like a motorway

I own the "American" version. It's either "Like a Motorway" or "Pale Movie."

Mine WAS "Like a Motorway" until I listened to the whole thing and realized A) I like "Pale Movie' more and B) "I Was Born On Christmas Day" is on the US version!! B) is my favorite.

Hug My Soul or Marble Lions for me. This one and Finesterre are the two albums of theirs it took me ages to love.

European edition adds "He's On The Phone," "I Buy American Records," "Grovely Road," and "Hate Your Drug." First two I can live without (in the context of this album); but "Grovely Road" and "Hate Your Drug" seem like they always should have been there & maybe should be in contention?

(though I don't know what the tracklisting for the deluxe edition ended up being.)

Gotta be Former Lover.

Like a Motorway, I've even made my peace with the mood and rhythm destroying breakdown after every chorus.

and it has an interestin provenance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjBpH1pGylM

this needs those extra songs from the euro edition!

'i buy american records' is kinda like the conceptual heart of this (effing brilliant) lp imo

Gosh, Ledge, I never that Like A Motorway was effectively a cover of a Joan Baez song.

...never KNEW that...

well it's an olde folke thing really.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Dagger_%28song%29

btw i disagree with wikipedia's reading of the (saint etienne) song

The song tells the story of a woman who kills her lover when she finds out that he is leaving her. She sings "I wish that he just left me" because if he had gone without her seeing him then she would not have killed him, and he would still be alive.

i figured he killed himself and the letter was a suicide note. if he tells her he's leaving then why write a letter?

Like a Motorway.

According to Bob Stanley, the Baez recording was the inspiration, though there are many versions.

"Like a Motorway", obvious but just you listen to that driving down the, er, motorway at night.

I had thought that "Like A Motorway" was just about a lover who died somehow but the suicide theme is probably right.

So many amazing songs for me on this, one of my absolute favourite records ever (the euro version anyway):

Former Lover
I Buy American Records
Grovely Road
Pale Movie
Marble Lions

Not to mention He's On The Phone!

But really everything on this album is amazing IMO.

I don't consider stuff like I Buy American records and Grovely Road part of the album - they certainly weren't on the UK edition - but I agree that 94-95 was their best run of B-sides, esp I Buy American Records.

Hug My Soul, possibly for the sumptuous tinkly vibes solo.

the fancy double-disc remaster includes 'i buy american records' but not 'grovely road', which is about right

'he's on the phone' is a bit incongruous too

Gotta be Former Lover.

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 04:52

^Yes, I think so. "Pale Movie" possibly second. Tough call though.

(I don't like "He's on the Phone")

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Cool Kids of Death. Underworld, innit. Though the full 12min version is better. Still, the tracks produced by Rick Smith are the best things about this album. Great album though.

thread just prompted me to order Tiger Bay and So Tough deluxe versions. Bought Foxbase Alpha and Continental deluxe already. Suppose i've got to get the other ones now.

oh Saint Etienne. I love them for English disco indie pop just a little less than New Order. It's Like A Motorway but I had to go back and check. I had to check that none of the choices were People Get Real = their real genius moment.

ledge wrote: i figured he killed himself and the letter was a suicide note. if he tells her he's leaving then why write a letter?

Here's one interesting thing about "Like a Motorway" - to understand what happens, you need to be familiar with the source material, the aforementioned folk song "Silver Dagger." It's about a fiercely protective mother, seduced and abandoned, who sleeps next to her daughter, guarding her with a silver dagger. "Like a Motorway" is about a girl seduced by a player who "said stupid things he knew she'd like" and gave her her first kiss. The singer asks the girl, "How could he ever leave you?" and the girl says that he didn't leave her (on purpose); she wishes he did, because then he'd be alive. It's never explicitly stated, but I think that we are to conclude (knowing the story of "Silver Dagger") that the girl's mother murdered the man. This makes the most sense, to me. The girl didn't kill him, nor was it a suicide.

they played People Get Real at a show i saw in Seattle around christmas 2000? for one of their friends in the audience. real highlight. love it too. there's a remix floating around that i heard on the terry francis website long ago.

Jeez Brian how many records have I prompted you to buy in the last, like, month?

too many!

I knew that Western Wind was based on an early 16th century poem (I have to admit, one that I knew through the "Poems on the Underground" initiative) and had heard about the Like A Motorway/Silver Dagger connection (but never actually heard Silver Dagger before this thread). Are there more connections in the other tracks?

And chucking "I Was Born On Christmas Day" in that track listing is a travesty.

the lyrics to "hate your drug" use a meter you don't generally hear in a pop song.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I agree w/r/t Christmas Day. Novelty single, not album material.

my opinion of this album is flawed since i've never been able to obtain the proper u.k. version. nice to see "former lover" get some.. erm.. love. "boy scouts of america" is ice cold.. "like a motorway" bumps. nothing else here really does much for me (but, like i said, haven't heard "tankerville" or the "western wind"s, let alone in proper sequence). i used to love "hug my soul" but it sounds slight and too forcefully chipper to me right now.

challopsy, i know, but i much prefer good humour and sound of water to this. sound of water would make an interesting poll, actually.

would have voted marble lions.

sound of water is an amazing album though. didn't everyone hate it when it came out? has this opinon been reversed? I do feel like it's kind of a sister album to this one.

Sound of Water gets a pass merely for having "Downey CA" on it, one of the most gorgeous songs ever written by any band.

and How We Used to Live

and every other song! i can understand being turned off by "boy is crying" but the rest is pure bliss.

"Sycamore" for the win when it comes to SoW.

word

both SoW and GH seemed to sort of disappear. i dunno if people hated them, but the band felt out of step for some reason, became something only the fans were bothered about.

Wasn't there an interesting thread a while back about the one song which best expresses the essence/point of an album? In this case Like a Motorway - old folk melody + cinematic lyrics + techno - is the very core of what Tiger Bay is trying to do.

btw

It's never explicitly stated, but I think that we are to conclude (knowing the story of "Silver Dagger") that the girl's mother murdered the man. This makes the most sense, to me. The girl didn't kill him, nor was it a suicide.

still don't really buy this, 'cause who wrote the letter, the mum? "Hi dearie I killed yr bf lol!!! xx mum xx". Also the line "I wish that he'd just left me" - the "just" implies he did something more than leave her (rather than something being done to him).

Forgot to vote!

::weeps::

OMG, how did "Pale Movie" get only 2 votes and "Xmas Day" only get 1??!?! That chimey bells bit at the end is so, so killer (after melodica after the last chorus)

It didn't get many votes because it doesn't really belong on a poll about Tiger Bay. It's a Christmas single that got stuck on the US release against the wishes of the band.

re. Deluxe re-issue.
Black Horse Latitude: "simon WHO? is in the garden"?

Wow, this demo mix of Urban Clearway that opens disc 2 of the reissue is spectacular. Touch of acid, much more raw sounding.

of the options in this poll, 'i was born on xmas day', tho 'urban clearway' is one of the best songs ever to listen to when yr tearing thru an airport trying to make your way to the gate imo

not quite sure what this lyric is on about but the delivery hits home

Marble lions at the gates of Eden
Screaming songs to lull the rage
Let's raise a flag that has no colors
Release the sun into the empty cathedral, yeah.

Always get ambushed by Shara Nelson's gorgeous vocals on "On The Shore".

ledge wrote: i figured he killed himself and the letter was a suicide note. if he tells her he's leaving then why write a letter?

Then I wrote: Here's one interesting thing about "Like a Motorway" - to understand what happens, you need to be familiar with the source material, the aforementioned folk song "Silver Dagger." It's about a fiercely protective mother, seduced and abandoned, who sleeps next to her daughter, guarding her with a silver dagger. "Like a Motorway" is about a girl seduced by a player who "said stupid things he knew she'd like" and gave her her first kiss. The singer asks the girl, "How could he ever leave you?" and the girl says that he didn't leave her (on purpose); she wishes he did, because then he'd be alive. It's never explicitly stated, but I think that we are to conclude (knowing the story of "Silver Dagger") that the girl's mother murdered the man. This makes the most sense, to me. The girl didn't kill him, nor was it a suicide.

Then ledge wrote: still don't really buy this, 'cause who wrote the letter, the mum? "Hi dearie I killed yr bf lol!!! xx mum xx". Also the line "I wish that he'd just left me" - the "just" implies he did something more than leave her (rather than something being done to him).

I'm not alone with my interpretation; I came across this article about "Silver Dagger": https://www.ft.com/content/e360b4c8-1e66-11e5-ab0f-6bb9974f25d0
...which says (boldface added by me):
In the hands of Saint Etienne, it was renamed “Like a Motorway”. Amid pounding synthesisers, throbbing sequencer lines and drum machine breakdowns, Sarah Cracknell sings a tale of lost love with familiar characters to the familiar tune. “He said her skin smelled just like petals/ Said stupid things he knew she’d like.” The narrative extends to reveal what happens when the lover fails to heed the warning. “I wish that he just left me/ He’d be alive, alive tonight.” Did the mother wake, this time? Over the coda, over and over again, Cracknell sings: “He’s gone, he’s gone.”

i listened to this record for the first time yesterday and it's already one of my favorite albums of all time

"She wears her jeans torn at the waistband" is a classic opening line

Favorite song.. eh I'm not crazy about this one, sorry Brad. Loss of atmosphere, too much clarity, too crafted

While I think all of the first three albums are spectacular and recognise that from certain angles any one of them could be considered the best, what marks out Tiger Bay for me is how Sarah's vocals (and/or the band's use of them) really come into their own here. They could be lovely and perfect before this point, of course, but on so many songs here Sarah assumes this role of an exquisite narrator, knowing all but always too late, her soft breathy restraint sharpened into crystalline clarity.

Delivering lines like "She's the softness of cinema seats" or "She calls for a beer / he knows there are none, so pretends not to hear" or "He acts like a saint but the strain really shows / The Boy Scouts of America taught him all that he knows".

In terms of sophisticate pop as poignant character study you could compare the album to The Hissing of Summer Lawns, except that rather than seeking to ground themselves in specific socio-historical constellations these songs use specific, pointillist details in order to stretch towards timeless archetypes.

great post. nailed why I like this record and the band in general, and the Joni comparison is otm

Has the reissue been discussed somewhere? I expected something completely different from that bonus 'Tapestry' disc but it really works (although I'm not sure how often i'll reach for it)