Proving they weren’t a fluke, Saint Etienne built on the success of Foxbase Alpha with 1993’s So Tough, their kaleidoscopic embrace of UK and worldwide pop sounds over the decades filtered through an only-in-London vision that helped both define and expand the scope of what was starting to be called Britpop. Cracknell’s warm, sweet singing captured both emotional highs and lows in striking fashion, while the trio’s compositional range covered everything from found-sound slice-of-life vignettes to elegant pop/dance confections like “You’re In a Bad Way” and “Avenue.”

– Ned Raggett