Farewells, expected or not, always carry a latent sense of emotion and melancholy for an era that is coming to a close. The end of Saint Etienne was announced long ago, so that we could prepare ourselves and to prove that it is possible to say goodbye to dancing. Throughout a long and successful career, Saint Etienne built their sound around an exquisite sonic architecture, achieving renown right away with their debut album, Foxbase Alpha (1991). The cunning with which the group reads pop culture and musical trends persisted throughout their entire discography and led them to delve into British folk on Tiger Bay (1994), to dispense with electronics in favor of the warm sounds of Swedish indie pop on Good Humor (1998), and to deliver a conceptual album of harmony pop with Tales from Turnpike House (2005). The band found a balance between nostalgia and futuristic sounds, until deciding to make an unexpected turn toward ambient pop: I've Been Trying to Tell You (2021), built on samples, and its more voice-oriented companion, Night (2024). After two records that took Saint Etienne's sound further than it had ever gone, the band returned to more familiar territory with International (2025), their swan song. The result was an album that strongly recalled the group's past, with an unmistakably Saint Etienne blend of gems for the dance floor, melancholic ballads and elegant pop songs.