Saint Etienne: Tiger Bay

I bought this in 2003 (a fiver from Fopp, as per usual). It wasn't until I got in home and came to put it next to all the other Saint Etienne albums that I discovered I already had a CD called Tiger Bay by Saint Etienne, which I'd bought three years earlier — only it had a different cover and different track listing. There is a version with a third different cover, as well. I don't know why.

I really like this album. It feels less tied to London than many of their others, and I think it's their best effort — in fact one of the best efforts by just about anyone — in bringing folk and dance music together. Listen to Like a Motorway, for example, which borrows the tune from the traditional song Silver Dagger, and the lyric has a fantastic twist at the end, worthy of a folk song. Ernest Paik has more details on this as part of his wonderful Stephinsongs blog. I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that Stephin Merritt was asked which one song he wished he'd written, and he said Like a Motorway — but now I can't find this reference, so I may just be starting an evil rumour.

MusicBrainz entry for this album