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Track Listings
| Disc: 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Only love can break your heart | |||
| 2. Kiss and make up | |||
| 3. Nothing can stop us now | |||
| 4. Spring | |||
| 5. Can't sleep | |||
| 6. Filthy | |||
| 7. Join our club | |||
| 8. People get real | |||
| 9. Paper | |||
| 10. Avenue | |||
See all 17 tracks on this disc
| |||
| Disc: 2 | |||
| 1. Like a motorway | |||
| 2. Cool kids of death | |||
| 3. Process | |||
| 4. He's on the phone | |||
| 5. Angel | |||
| 6. Shad Thames | |||
| 7. Wood cabin | |||
| 8. Sylvie | |||
| 9. Lose that girl | |||
| 10. Bad photographer | |||
|
See all 17 tracks on this disc
| |||
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Smash the System is a 34-track best-of compilation following the UK trio's remarkable progression from suave masters of post-rave dub soul into protagonists of ironic pastiches of cheesy 60s pop. Producers Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs even acquired bouffants to match their retro fetish, and their twee-voiced singer Sarah Cracknell dressed as if she'd just stepped out of a mini for a David Bailey photo shoot. For a time they smartly blended guitar pop with the emerging dance scene but like other bands formed by music journalists (Gay Dad take note) they became too clever for their own good. Smash the System kicks off with "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", St Etienne's most accomplished piece of work. It was their debut cut, remixed by Andy Weatherall, and was instrumental in pioneering the indie-dance crossover genre that hugely benefited groups such as Primal Scream, the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays in the early 1990s. But St Etienne continued on a different curve, veering into quasi-comedic records such as "He's on the Phone" which pokes fun at Kylie Minogue's early career and the Sandie Shaw-like "The Bad Photographer". They later recaptured their early dancefloor swagger and had a top 10 hit ("Tell Me Why") in conjunction with Paul Van Dyk. Unfortunately this doesn't appear on this collection. Going through 10 years of their work you can see the dub and breakbeat influences diminish in direct proportion to the influx of silliness, which is probably why St Etienne are still regarded as one of pops great underachievers. The remix album Casino Classics probably does them better justice. --Jake Barnes
Smash the System is a 34-track best-of compilation following the UK trio's remarkable progression from suave masters of post-rave dub soul into protagonists of ironic pastiches of cheesy 60s pop. Producers Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs even acquired bouffants to match their retro fetish, and their twee-voiced singer Sarah Cracknell dressed as if she'd just stepped out of a mini for a David Bailey photo shoot. For a time they smartly blended guitar pop with the emerging dance scene but like other bands formed by music journalists (Gay Dad take note) they became too clever for their own good. Smash the System kicks off with "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", St Etienne's most accomplished piece of work. It was their debut cut, remixed by Andy Weatherall, and was instrumental in pioneering the indie-dance crossover genre that hugely benefited groups such as Primal Scream, the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays in the early 1990s. But St Etienne continued on a different curve, veering into quasi-comedic records such as "He's on the Phone" which pokes fun at Kylie Minogue's early career and the Sandie Shaw-like "The Bad Photographer". They later recaptured their early dancefloor swagger and had a top 10 hit ("Tell Me Why") in conjunction with Paul Van Dyk. Unfortunately this doesn't appear on this collection. Going through 10 years of their work you can see the dub and breakbeat influences diminish in direct proportion to the influx of silliness, which is probably why St Etienne are still regarded as one of pops great underachievers. The remix album Casino Classics probably does them better justice. --Jake Barnes