Saint Etienne

From the time of their formation in London in 1990, Saint Etienne skirted the edges of several genres at once. Establishing a new musical paradigm, they brought together house-flavored dance beats, '60s pop influences, synth-pop, and more. The group was started by producers, keyboardists, and composers Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, who initially envisioned constantly shifting lead singers, but it became apparent pretty quickly that Sarah Cracknell was destined to be the permanent frontwoman for Saint Etienne. They released their first album, Foxbase Alpha, in 1991, but it wasn't until their second album, 1993's So Tough, that they really started to make an impact on the British charts, making it all the way to No. 7. The album boasted one of the group's biggest hits, the No. 12 single "You're in a Bad Way," and showed the growing eclecticism for which Saint Etienne would become known, with samples and influences from classic rock to dub and beyond entering into the mix. 1994's Tiger Bay proved to be the group's most atmospheric outing yet, but it didn't cough up any singles as big as those of its predecessor. The following year, however, a collaboration with French singer/songwriter Etienne Daho led to the release of Saint Etienne's biggest hit ever, "He's on the Phone." They didn't put out another album until 1998, but Good Humor ended up shifting the group's sound towards a more organic, less dance/electronic-oriented approach. Though it didn't make much impact on the charts, "A Good Thing" from 2005's Tales From Turnpike House ended up earning Saint Etienne an even wider audience than before, by virtue of being featured in the film "Volver" (2006) and the U.S. TV show "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC 2005- ). Despite dabbling in outside projects, Cracknell, Stanley, and Wiggins kept the group going long enough to become the venerated elders of U.K. dance pop, as evidenced by latter-day releases like 2017's Home Counties.