Tiger Bay (album)


Tiger Bay is the third studio album by English indie dance band Saint Etienne. It was released by Heavenly Recordings. In an interview with Record Collector, band member Bob Stanley stated that the title is a reference to the 1959 film Tiger Bay.
The album is described by Bob Stanley as "an album of modern folk songs done in twentieth century styles like techno and dub". "Like a Motorway", for example, blends Kraftwerk-style techno with the melody from the nineteenth century folk song "Silver Dagger". Some of the songs, such as "Marble Lions" and "Former Lover" forsake electronics for classical folk instrumentation and orchestral arrangements. One, "Western Wind", is a traditional English folk song.

Background

The band wrote most of the songs in the Forest of Dean, in the hope that the countryside would inspire folk ideas. The original intention was for all the songs to be about death.

Releases

Tiger Bay was released in the UK in February 1994. The original cover art is James Clarke Hook's "Welcome Bonny Boat", doctored to include the band members.
The American edition of the album replaced the UK cover art with a photograph of the band smartly dressed at a table. It does not include the "Western Wind"/"Tankerville" suite. In place of the cut songs is the single "I Was Born on Christmas Day" and remixes by Daniel Abraham of "Hug My Soul" and "Like a Motorway".
The Japanese edition of the album was retitled as 哀しみ色のムーヴィー, and included the bonus tracks "Who Do You Think You Are" and "Pale Movie ".
Tiger Bay was reissued in 1996 by Creation Records, in part because of Saint Etienne's absence from the music scene, but also because of their formal move to Creation Records. The reissue featured another new cover, this time showing Giuditta del Vecchio ; the back shows a picture of the group. The inner sleeve was updated, and includes a short commentary on the album by journalist and friend of the group Simon Price, as well as a new selection of photographs with a summery theme. The album itself features a slightly shuffled track listing. "Marble Lions" is moved to appear after "Pale Movie". The second occurrence of "Western Wind" is removed completely; instead "Tankerville" fades into "Boy Scouts of America". "Former Lover" is also edited, although less noticeably, with only the opening guitar chords being removed. The reissue also features four extra tracks – "I Buy American Records", "Grovely Road", "Hate Your Drug" and the single edit of "He's on the Phone".
In 2010 the album was re-released once more. The new deluxe version reinstates the original sleeve art and includes a booklet with an interview with Bob Stanley and additional bonus disc containing a number of demos and all of the B-sides.

Response

In his review for Select, Stuart Maconie hailed Tiger Bay as Saint Etienne's "best album yet" and highlighted its "almost criminally opulent variety of musical backdrops", while in Vox, Mike Pattenden said that it showed the band "harnessing their encyclopaedic pop knowledge and striving to pull together its diverse strands." Writing for Q, Andrew Collins deemed Tiger Bay an improvement over Saint Etienne's previous albums, citing its "much-needed consistency of pace and style" and "engaging " music. Trade papers Music Week and Music & Media reacted favourably, with the former appraising it as the band's "most commercial gambit to date" and the latter suggesting "Pale Movie" was "a hit in the waiting room." Chicago Tribune critic Brad Webber complimented the album's "soothing amalgamation of lush instrumentals and hypnotic, house-music beats", and Entertainment Weeklys Michele Romero quipped that with its "beautiful ballads", "perky, disco-ready tunes", and "TV-theme-like music", "Charlie's Angels could have done a lot of jogging to... Tiger Bay".
NME journalist Paul Moody was less impressed, dismissing Tiger Bay as "kitsch" consisting "purely of half-singles and utterly anonymous ambient-chicanery." Tony Cross of Smash Hits felt it lacked "effort" and noted the presence of "some really bobbins B-sides with token instrumentals." In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau simply listed it as a "dud".
The British release of Tiger Bay was commercially successful and reached #8 on the UK Albums Chart. Three singles were released, but none matched the popularity of those from their previous album. The first, "Pale Movie", peaked at No. 28. "Like a Motorway" was more disappointing, missing the top forty completely and making only No. 47. "Hug My Soul" was released as a two-disc set and managed better, peaking at No. 32.
"Hug My Soul" was the only single that charted in the US and reached No. 40 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.
In a 2009 interview, Bob Stanley said that in retrospect the band should have included some more obvious singles on Tiger Bay, to be commercial: "it definitely could have done with a couple more obvious songs". He also acknowledged that the original cover was a commercial mistake.
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Dave Thompson lauded Tiger Bay as "the peak" of Saint Etienne's early work, and "everything that two generations of post-Beatles wannabes have labored to create, but have always been too in awe to complete: a melding of mood with momentum, emotion with eccentricity, and an endless succession of divine verses sliding into sad and sexy hooks." Pitchfork staff writer Marc Hogan regarded it as "the subtlest, most cinematic, and pretty much indisputably last of Saint Etienne's astounding initial burst of albums", whose "blend of pastoral folk and silvery electronics was worlds apart from Union Jack-waving contemporaries' phony Beatlemania."

Personnel

Original credits (1994)

;Saint Etienne
;Additional personnel
;Design
  • Anthony Sweeney – design
  • Peter Mennim – cover painting
  • Paul Kelly – photos
  • Aude Prieur – photos
  • Francesca Simon – archive research
  • Mr Stripey – in memory of

Alternate credits for American release

  • Tim Burgess – guest vocals
  • 'Jim Bob' Wheatley – engineer
  • Mark 'Spike' Stent – mixing
  • Daniel Abraham – additional production and mix, additional programming ", "Like a Motorway
  • Merve Depeyer – keyboards, programming ", "Like a Motorway
  • Juan Garcia – overdub engineering ", "Like a Motorway
  • Recorded at Scream Studios, NYC, mixed at Right Track Recording, NYC. ", "Like a Motorway

Additional credits for 1996 British re-release

  • Recorded summer 1995
  • Recorded at Olympic, summer 1995
  • 'Jim Bob' Wheatley – engineer
  • Motiv 8 – mix arranged by
  • Etienne Daho appears courtesy of Virgin France
;Design

B-sides

From "Pale Movie"
  • "Highgate Road Incident"
  • "Pale Movie "
  • "Pale Movie "
  • "Pale Movie "
From "Like a Motorway"
  • "You Know I'll Miss You When You're Gone"
  • "Sushi Rider"
  • "Like a Motorway "
  • "Like A Motorway "
  • "Like A Motorway "
From "Hug My Soul"
  • "I Buy American Records"
  • "Hate Your Drug"
  • "La Poupee Qui Fait Non "
  • "Hug My Soul "
  • "Hug My Soul "
  • "Hug My Soul "
  • "Hug My Soul "
  • "Hug My Soul "