Tim Peaks (Songs For A Late-Night Diner)

Saint Etienne and the Charlatans have long had a connection thanks to Tim Burgess guesting on the former band’s great single “I Was Born On Christmas Day,” though as Bob Stanley notes the connection goes back even further to when he interviewed Burgess when the latter’s band was making an initial splash. Perhaps little surprise that the equally music obsessed Burgess ended up partnering with Stanley for a delightful comp riffing on Burgess’s Tim Peaks Diner, a traveling installment on the UK festival circuit that’s part coffee shop, part general hangout, part small stage venue. With liner notes featuring the two discussing their selections, it’s a great non-chronological trip ranging from the post-punk music legends Young Marble Giants to the Cornish-language work of former Pipettes member Gwenno and back again, with a gentle ear towards what a Manchester-area version of a David Lynch TV series of note would sound like. Appropriately, many (but by no means all) selections are from Burgess’s Lancashire home region, including songs by Durutti Column, Blue Orchids and the Stockholm Monsters.