Saint Etienne have announced a new album, The Night, and shared its lead single, a haunting track titled “Half Light.”
Due on December 13th, The Night will be the follow up to the band’s 2011 album, I’ve Been Trying to Tell You, and marks their 11th studio album to date. Spanning 14 new tracks, it was co-produced by Augustin Bousfield and the band themselves.
The single, “Half Light,” is an ethereal lo-fi ballad, placing vocalist Sarah Cracknell’s gentle croon in a tapestry of swelling synths pads and countermelodies. Throughout, she delivers introspective lyrics, with her stacked vocals gracefully splitting apart into harmonies on the refrain “in Half Light.”
Stream the single below.
First formed in London in 1990, Saint Etienne has been a fixture of the UK’s alternative dance scene ever since. Earlier this year, the band shared merch featuring a show they played in Birmingham in 1993 with a then-emerging act, Oasis, as their opening act. “I know it’s hard now to imagine hearing it for the first time, but we were very impressed,” the band’s Bob Stanley wrote on Instagram.