SAINT Etienne have always been too busy for golden singer Sarah Cracknell to have a second crack at a second solo diversion, but a sudden gap in the diary has allowed her to follow up 1997’s Lipslide at last.

The first record was a close relative of Saint Etienne’s urban template; Red Kite flies off to the country, to Sarah’s rural Oxfordshire to be precise, and the resulting record is as pastoral as a cult Oxfordshire classic from 1982, Virginia Astley’s From Gardens Where We Feel, rural field recordings and all.

Where Astley evoked the timeless country life, Red Kite harks back to the 1960s, and in particular to Marianne Faithfull. Not that the record is a Faithfull reproduction of the errant convent girl; it is cooler and quirkier, with better melodies too, and Cracknell adds a couple of cracking guests – the Manics’ Nicky Wire and The Rails – to complete the sound of Summer 2015. Mint Cracknell indeed.