The last time Sarah Cracknell released a solo record, Tony Blair had just entered Downing Street, Britpop had reached its charmless tipping point, and Cracknell's band, Saint Etienne, were riding high on a run of classic albums (Foxbase Alpha, So Tough, Tiger Bay) and hit singles (You're In A Bad Way, He's On The Phone).

If the times have a-changed in the 18 years since Lipslide, then so has Cracknell. The golden girl of savvy, sparkling indie-dance might look remarkably unscathed by the passing years, but her musical and lyrical preoccupations have certainly shifted on her second solo album, Red Kite.

Last year, when Saint Etienne were working on the live soundtrack to Paul Kelly's How We Used To Live, a terrific cinematic overview of London between 1945 and 1980, Cracknell "got into the mind-set of using gentle instruments, and taking a bit of a breather from elec-trickery. On this album I wanted to make a feature of interesting sounds you feel you haven't heard before. I didn't want people to say, 'Oh, I know what that's going to sound like, so I won't listen to it.'"

The album delivers on that promise. While Saint Etienne have become almost synonymous with London, their music expertly evoking both its Swinging glamour and a more humdrum suburban melancholy, Red Kite feels a long way from the big smoke. Ten years ago Cracknell and her family moved into a house in rural Oxfordshire - "It was a wreck, we had to knock half of it down and start again" - and a decade of country living has seeped into the bones of her music. On Red Kite, Cracknell's quintessentially English sigh of a voice wraps itself around a wistful blend of pastoral pop and hazy folk themes. Red Kite is a summer record, albeit one made in the depths of winter. It is, she says, music which reflects the reality of her life these days.

"My environment definitely plays a big part. Where I live is surrounded by fields and trees, and I've met people nearby who play flute and cello and nice things like that." The home-brewed, hyper-local flavour runs through the record from root to branch. Songs that were written with friends at her kitchen table were later recorded in a barn located a short walk across the fields from her home.

"There was one big room which we used as the live room, and a smaller room with windows where we made a studio," says Cracknell, who is used to make-do and mend when it comes to the process of recording. "Saint Etienne have only ever had indie deals, and we've mainly recorded in people's spare rooms. We've not done much of the big studio thing, so a barn was fine. Chilly, though! We definitely kept our coats on."

Red Kite was co-produced by Edwyn Collins's collaborator Seb Lewsley and Carwyn Ellis, of Welsh band Colorama, both of whom bunked down chez Cracknell for a fortnight either side of Christmas 2014. "We'd get up, have breakfast, and pop off to the studio," says Cracknell, who has two sons, Sam and Spencer. "It meant I had the freedom to come and go if I needed to do some child-related thing."

Befitting these rather bucolic working practices, the album bears the imprint of friends and family. Indeed, Underneath The Stars might very well be the first aunt-nephew songwriting collaboration in pop history. Cracknell laughs. "My nephew Noah knew I was doing a record and he kept sending me emails: 'Here's a song I wrote recently, here's another one.' I'd be very polite - 'I'm not sure that's quite right' - but he was very persistent. Eventually he sent me this song which I really loved. I took it away and moved the melody all over the place and changed the feel, but he was very good. He didn't get upset or anything."

Other guests include folk duo The Rails and Nicky Wire from Manic Street Preachers, who drops in to sing on the upbeat Nothing Left To Talk About. The Manics and Saint Etienne were label mates on Heavenly back in the early 1990s, and have remained friends. "Nicky's got a great voice, it has just the quality I wanted," says Cracknell. "Because of the content of the lyric I didn't want it to be too stroppy or strident, and he's got this really lovely, pure sound. It worked really well."

For all Red Kite's organic atmosphere, Cracknell hasn't abandoned her more populist sensibilities. The album wears its influences proudly, among them Ennio Morricone, The Beach Boys, Marianne Faithfull, Joe Meek, 1960s garage rock, Nick Drake and The Left Banke. "That's all stuck in my brain," she says. "There will always be a pop sensibility in everything I do, it's ingrained. I've never been ashamed of being a fan, I don't think it's a dirty word."

It's been three years since the last Saint Etienne album, Words And Music By Saint Etienne. Although all three members have a healthy extracurricular life - Pete Wiggs keeps busy with film scores and DJ-ing, while Bob Stanley is a noted music journalist who recently published Yeah Yeah Yeah, an acclaimed history of pop - the group remains a central priority for them all. Red Kite, says Cracknell, will act as a gentle prod in the ribs to her band mates.

"If I do a solo record they get twitchy," she laughs. "The same thing happened with Lipslide. They get jealous: 'We want to do one!' Which is great."

She confirms that "there are definitely a lot of murmurings about our next record," but in the meantime, Cracknell's upcoming Glasgow show will offer some succour for Saint Etienne fans. "What I might do," she ponders, "is wheedle out the songs that I wrote separately from Bob and Peter, if they're good enough." Few fans would refuse a trip down memory lane, but as Red Kite proves, Cracknell has no need to lean on past glories.

Red Kite is released on the Cherry Red Records label on Monday. Sarah Cracknell plays Oran Mor, Glasgow, on June 19