Buoyed by their signing to an indie label and backed by Jazz Services for a major tour, the irrepressible Dictators are back with a fresh verve that insists you listen. That insistence can come from their nervy, jagged attack, as on the opening ‘Anger Management’, or more potently it can come from their playing so intensely at the quietest of volumes as on ‘In The Chophouse’, or the lustrous ‘Bubble and Squeak’. It helps to have Maddren on board who can play with such articulation at such low decibels. Mind you, he goes suitably ape on ‘Pottering Around’, which most definitely doesn’t potter.

The emotional heart of the band remains the Freestone/Franks alliance, with the former keeping an angsty edge even at her most gentle as on ‘Sit Tight’. But it’s too easy to compare the Dictators to the Partisans for their sax/guitar frontline: Compassionate Dictatorship have their own style, their own schtick and in Freestone in particular they have a voice that’s now rounding into an impressive maturity. The bass player can play a bit too.