An even more elusive release than The Misadventures of Saint Etienne! Likewise, this fan club-only release is more soundtrack work, this time culled from a variety of different sources. The first three tracks are for an indie film, Lost, and tracks 5-7 are a hypothetical soundtrack for a non-existent film adaptation of the novel The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western. I haven’t yet found out where the other tracks are from, sadly. Asleep at the Wheels of Steel features even less of Sarah Cracknell’s vocals, and the majority of the compilation is more traditional, short, ambient background noise.

It’s still charmingly amateurish like all of Saint Etienne, so it’s not lacking in character. Saint Etienne’s “Lost” is possibly their most direct foray into the trip hop genre, and the only noteworthy composition here. Cracknell also plays a large role in “The Chemicals” and the spoken-word sections of “Christmas 1936,” but other than the previously mentioned track, I think any fan could stand to sit Asleep at the Wheels of Steel out.