Sound of Water
Studio album by
Saint Etienne
Released22 June 2000
Length42:45
Label
ProducerSaint Etienne, Gerard Johnson
Saint Etienne chronology
Built on Sand
(1999) 		Sound of Water
(2000) 		Interlude
(2001)
Singles from Sound of Water
  1. "How We Used to Live"
    Released: 2000
  2. "Heart Failed (In the Back of a Taxi)"
    Released: 2000
  3. "Boy Is Crying"
    Released: 2001
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic80/100[1]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
Entertainment WeeklyA−[3]
The Guardian[4]
Los Angeles Times[5]
NME7/10[6]
Pitchfork7.7/10 (2000)[7]
7.0/10 (2009)[8]
Q[9]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[10]
Select4/5[11]
Spin8/10[12]

Sound of Water is an album by Saint Etienne, released in 2000. Sound of Water was developed as Saint Etienne's ambient and trip hop statement.

The album's lead single was "How We Used to Live," which was not edited down from its 9-minute running length for single release.

Their previous US release Places to Visit was clearly the beginning of this new direction. Many of the artists with whom they collaborated on that EP are present on Sound of Water.

During the group's tenure with Sub Pop (1998–2005), Saint Etienne released many albums. Places to Visit preceded Sound of Water. In turn, the label released Interlude a year afterwards. Interlude is an album of mostly b-sides from the Sound of Water singles, as well as a couple from the Good Humor era.

The album is one of the few releases on which the band did not collaborate with Ian Catt in some way. The album was co-produced by Gerard Johnson and had arrangements by To Rococo Rot and Sean O'Hagan. It was recorded at To Rococo Rot's studio, Amber Sound, in Berlin, Germany. The band have described the recording sessions as 'working in an airless, windowless oven'.

"The Place at Dawn" contains a sample of Magna Carta's "Medley", from the 1970 album Seasons.

Reissue

Sound of Water was remastered and reissued as part of Heavenly Recordings/Universal's deluxe editions of the band's recordings on 31 August 2009 (2009-08-31). The same deluxe edition was released in the United States on 30 June 2017 by PIAS Recordings. The new release features b-sides, unreleased tracks and the entire Places to Visit EP, which was previously only released in the United States and Germany.

Artwork

The album and singles artwork were all designed by Julian Opie.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Cracknell, Stanley and Wiggs; Except where indicated

CD: Mantra / MNTCD1018 (2000)
No.TitleLength
1."Late Morning"4:13
2."Heart Failed (in the Back of a Taxi)"3:41
3."Sycamore"3:46
4."Don't Back Down"4:49
5."Just a Little Overcome"3:41
6."Boy is Crying"3:52
7."Aspects of Lambert"3:30
8."Downey, CA"4:24
9."How We Used to Live"9:02
10."The Place at Dawn"1:47
Sound of Water deluxe edition disc 2 – CD: Heavenly / HVNLP72CDDE (2009)
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Roseneck" 3:29
2."Northwestern" 5:44
3."Red Setter" 3:30
4."Blofeld Buildings"Cracknell, Lippok, Lippock, Schneider, Stanley, Wiggs6:11
5."Bar Conscience" 5:14
6."Shoot Out The Lights" 4:08
7."Thank You" 4:30
8."Chaos at the Gym"Stanley, Thomas, Wiggs2:53
9."Tony Jacket" 3:54
10."Garage for Gunther" 3:51
11."Ivyhouse" 2:07
12."52 Pilot" 5:37
13."We're in the City" 4:41
14."Artieripp" 4:46
15."Sadie's Anniversary" 3:01
16."Half Timbered" 1:20
17."Empty Shop" 3:24

Notes

Due to a mastering error on the 2009 deluxe edition of the album, the song "Blofeld Buildings" is longer than the original version featured on the fan-club compilation Built On Sand. The same song starts playing again at the 1:32 mark, which makes the whole track end at 6:11. The 2017 reissue of the release corrected this flaw.

Credits

Saint Etienne is:

Augmented by:

B-sides

From "How We Used to Live"

From "Heart Failed (In the Back of a Taxi)"

From "Boy Is Crying"

Charts

Chart performance for Sound of Water
Chart (2000) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[14] 96
European Albums (Music & Media)[15] 86
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[16] 23
Scottish Albums (OCC)[17] 31
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[18] 47
UK Albums (OCC)[19] 33
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[20] 4
US Independent Albums (Billboard)[21] 27

References

  1. ^ "Reviews for Sound of Water by Saint Etienne". Metacritic. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  2. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Sound of Water – Saint Etienne". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  3. ^ Hermes, Will (9 June 2000). "Sound of Water". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 18 July 2001. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  4. ^ Sullivan, Caroline (19 May 2000). "Saint Etienne: Sound of Water (Mantra)". The Guardian.
  5. ^ Lechner, Ernesto (21 July 2000). "Saint Etienne, 'Sound of Water,' Sub Pop". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  6. ^ Pattison, Louis (22 May 2000). "Saint Etienne – Sound Of Water". NME. Archived from the original on 21 June 2000. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  7. ^ Hooker, Zach (22 June 2000). "Saint Etienne: Sound of Water". Pitchfork. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  8. ^ Harvell, Jess (17 September 2009). "Saint Etienne: So Tough / Sound of Water". Pitchfork. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  9. ^ "Saint Etienne: Sound of Water". Q. No. 166. July 2000. pp. 123–24.
  10. ^ Berger, Arion (2004). "Saint Etienne". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 713–14. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  11. ^ Grundy, Gareth (June 2000). "Saint Etienne: Sound of Water". Select. No. 120.
  12. ^ Walters, Barry (September 2000). "Saint Etienne: Sound of Water". Spin. Vol. 16, no. 9. p. 92. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  13. ^ Forum Discussion
  14. ^ "Response from ARIA re: Saint Etienne chart history inquiry, received 20 September 2017". Retrieved 9 February 2022 – via Imgur. The "High Point" number displayed in the "NAT" column represents the release's peak on the national chart.
  15. ^ "European Top 100 Albums" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 17, no. 24. 10 June 2000. p. 12. OCLC 29800226 – via World Radio History.
  16. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Saint Etienne – Finisterre". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  17. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  18. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Saint Etienne – Finisterre". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  19. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  20. ^ "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  21. ^ "Saint Etienne Chart History (Independent Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
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