You know what it’s like when you meet an old but distant friend sometimes who you may not have seen for a while – you ask yourself if you’re likely to see them again in the near future, or why you left it so long to rekindle the friendship? Maybe even why you were friends with them in the first place?
Well, I had similar feelings about Foxbase Alpha, the debut album from Saint Etienne. Although I liked parts of it, it wasn’t one of my favourites from the London-based trio. I preferred later collections such as You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone, Sound Of Water and Tales From Turnpike House, or even the import-only The Misadventures Of Saint Etienne. And believe me, I love St Et.
But, just as the voice asks ‘What happened there?’ at the end of track five, Girl VII on the new remixed version of Foxbase Alpha, Foxbase Beta, something has; the arrival of the new reworked album has made me regard the remixed early collection of 13 tracks from 1990 as one of the group’s best.
Richard X might have something to do with it. The modern pop producer cited Foxbase Alpha as one of his favourite albums of all time, and after working with the group on This Is Tomorrow and 2009 single Method Of Modern Love, a plan was formulated to re-produce Foxbase Alpha and not so much bring it up to date, but throw off some of its clothes and reveal more of the music behind the 18-year old recordings.
And the Blackburn producer famous for working with such musical luminaries as Annie, Kelis, Sugababes and (ahem) Liberty X has certainly done that. Foxbase Beta sounds so much more, well, sparkly, rejuvenated. Always an album which conjured up images of early morning sunrises and crisp, spring days, it now shimmers, like the morning dew.
More of a companion piece to the original recording, Richard X hasn’t tampered too much with the spirit of the original album. He’s just added more musical and forgotten-about snippets from the original sessions; put absent instruments back; and made the whole thing more Sixties-sounding, and more ‘London’. Sarah Cracknell recorded new vocals for some songs, too, and even they sound brighter.
From the clarity and freshness of Only Love Can Break Your Heart, to the breeziness of Spring, from the Freddie Phillips/Trumpton-inspired London Belongs To Us to the faster-paced bounciness and stomp of Nothing Can Stop Us, he’s worked wonders. Not that there was much wrong before, I just don’t know if I ‘got’ it. I don’t know why I ‘get’ it now, but by Richard X twiddling some knobs, it’s had a hold on me over the past couple of weeks.
Available as a limited edition, numbered two-disc set (I have no. 0428) with the reworked album on one disc and a pithy directors’ commentary and bonus tracks on the other, a single-disc version is also for sale through Rough Trade records. For those who don’t know what master tapes and CDs are, there should be also a digital download album at iTunes, which along with the single-disc version, misses out on the commentary and bonus tracks.
Overall then, Foxbase Beta is a fresher and brighter than ever before version of Foxbase Alpha; a solid five stars. If you’re a Saint Etienne fan, it’s a must for your collection. New yet familiar at the same time, courtesy of Foxbase Beta, Foxbase Alpha has put on its best lippy, pulled on a boob tube, and is ready to go out partying. Like it’s 1990, of course…
