Electronic Sound Issue 126 2025

English | 100 pages | PDF | 43 MB
Ahead of their final studio album coming out in September, we're saying a fond farewell to SAINT ETIENNE with this month's Electronic Sound cover story and an exclusive blue vinyl seven-inch from the group. One side is a sparkling new offering and other is the track that launched the band way back in 1990.

It's incredible to think that it's 35 years since Saint Etienne released their groovy version of Neil Young's 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' as their debut single. Their forthcoming album, the wonderfully upbeat 'International', will be their 14th studio set but also their last – as Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs explain in our extensive and hugely entertaining interview. It will conclude a recording career that's been both tirelessly eclectic and deeply indebted to their love of classic pop music. And with the list of guests on the new album including Vince Clarke and Nick Heyward, as well as radio and television presenters Katie Puckrik and Colin Murray, it's a splendid way for the trio to bow out.

Keep turning the pages and you'll soon discover lots of other great reads in addition to our lead feature. COSEY FANNI TUTTI, ULTRAMARINE and PETER BAUMANN discuss their latest releases, while MATT JOHNSON remembers the making of The The's 'This Is The Day' and MAX COOPER unveils his influences. We also celebrate the EDITIONS MEGO label and "dirty ambient" pioneers O YUKI CONJUGATE, with DEMISE OF LOVE, AM BOYS, HOLOGRAM TEEN and plenty more elsewhere in the mix.

We have a glorious SAINT ETIENNE seven-inch to accompany this issue of the magazine, a limited edition release on transparent blue vinyl. It comes in a special "Paint Etienne" sleeve too. See what we did there? The A-side of the record is the summery sizzler 'Glad', a collaboration with Tom Rowlands from The Chemical Brothers and Jez Williams from Doves, which has been chosen as the opening cut of Saint Etienne's 'International' album. The B-side, meanwhile, is the group's memorable cover of 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart', which sounds every bit as good today as it did more than three decades ago. Hold on to your hats, here comes that enormous bassline...

As with all of our releases, this record is only available to readers of Electronic Sound, so grab your copy right away.