I loved this album when it was originally released. Girl VII was my gateway to London as I started to explore the city in the early 90's. Saint Etienne managed to make Kennington, Silvertown and Tooting Graveny sound glamourous. It's lost a little of the appeal over the years. It still has a nice slouch feel without ever being seedy. Some of the samples get on your tits after a while.
Fun, fun, fun. They don’t make ‘em like this any more. Mainly because it’s not worth the hassle of clearing that many samples these days. I really like the juggling of pop sophistication with other, more down-home, pop culture references. An excellent pop album. Only ‘Swallow’, which seemed to really go against the prevailing mood and was a little jarring to these ears in context, stopped this being a full 5 stars.