Track Listing

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
11. Mario's cafe
12. You're in a bad way
13. Archway people
14. Who do you think you are
15. Hobart Paving
16. Pale movie
17. Hug my soul

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
11. Goodnight Jack
12. Madeleine
13. 4:35 in the morning
14. Jack Lemmon
15. Saturday
16. 52 pilot
17. .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7328 in Music
• Released on: 2001-09-17
• Number of discs: 2

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

Customer Reviews

One of the best collections around
This is one of the rare occasions when an album of greatest hits is so complete, not only gathering all the great songs for the loyal fans, but also giving to new potential fans the chance to know the band in all their variety and success.

Sarah Cracknell's voice is dreamy, the 70s-like tunes nostalgic, almost cinematic, the music covering an area from dream pop to independent. This collection consists of two discs yet you can't get enough of it. Their biggest hits are all here, including 'You're in a bad way', 'Only love can break your heart', 'Pale Movie', 'Who do you think you are', 'Hobarts Pavement', 'He's on the phone' and many others. The music strongly resembles a lot of Cafe del Mar collections only it's better.

If you miss that sweet era when pop was not 'pop' but a pop-ular genre of music for adults, go ahead and buy this album. Saint Etienne are unique, and frankly, there is no competition around.

Feel Good!
Saint Etienne were a band that I heard bits of during the 90's but I only got round to buying one CD - So Tough, which was very good. This is an excellent compilation that I bought a few months back and it its still in the car now. Its best described as feel good pop. Its musically clever, interesting and catchy, whilst lyrically, clearly made by a band who aren't taking themselves too seriously. Nothing on here is too challenging, but that's not the point. It covers a wide range of styles - some songs have clearly never been near a real instrument - but its all kinda good. And like the other reviewer says, worth buying for the neopolitan ice cream cover alone!

Music to fall in love to.
St Etienne did not descend into silliness as the Amazon review seems to imply ;-). They merely found their groove in a gentle remaking of a 60's pop sound for the end of the millennium. They always had a knack of marrying the sweetest tunes with poignant, sometimes heart-rending lyrics. Ok, so they never had a hit single, who cares! The music they have left behind is amongst the best written pure pop to come out of the mess of boy and girl bands and pop idols that was the nineties. If you have ever liked any of their tracks, then buy this. You will not be disappointed. Hell, even if you have never heard of them, buy it anyway!