Promonews - 26th Aug Alasdair McLellan recasts the post-industrial landscapes of England as a gorgeous dreamworld in his inimitable style for Saint Etienne's Pond House. Then in Penlop he integrates iconic British locations - Blackpool's Golden Mile, the Severn Bridge - into domestic and intimate scenes of youthful boredom. McLellan has applied the distinctive aesthetic that has graced his fashion photography and commercials for Marc Jacobs, Miu Miu and others to scenes shot in unfashionably provincial places in the UK: Avebury, Grangemouth, Portmeirion, Doncaster - McLellan's home town - and more.
The theme of the album is a reflection upon the s - the period after Saint Etienne's breakthrough with their debut album Foxbase Alpha - which they reflect back on with nostalgia and mull over the optimism and naivety of the times.
And with all of the band's work, it's rooted in a specific vision on Britain. McLellan's film allows the viewer the space to reflect upon these issues in the hypnotic pacing and repetition of his gorgeously composed images - graded by his regular colourist-collaborator Jamie Noble at Studio RM. At that time, I was a bored teenager in a village near Doncaster, South Yorkshire; it was a place where very little happened.
I now look back at that time as something quite idyllic — even the boredom seems idyllic — and a big part of its soundtrack was Saint Etienne.
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