Mayo’s debut album, Bones, was a work of startling originality with a sound world which referenced everything from The Beach Boys to J Dilla. Recorded over two days at Bunker Studio in Brooklyn and backed by an incredible all-star band, this eagerly awaited follow-up presents another wildly enjoyable sonic ride. Mayo-penned originals including album opener ‘Bag of Bones’, the title track (which again features his parents on backing vocal duties), and ‘Frenzy’ highlight his amazing facility for delivering hooks which lodge immediately in your consciousness.

There’s a delicious mid-tempo reworking of ‘Just Friends’ which calls to mind a version recorded by the great Andy Bey on his 2001 album Tuesdays In Chinatown. This song also features one of Mayo’s signature moves, namely a coda with stacked up vocal harmonies which pops up out of nowhere. Another Mayo original, ‘Silence’, epitomises all of the great qualities of his writing: a multipartite structure which keeps you guessing until the end, a pleasing metrical ambiguity, tiny textural details which delight the ear, plus vocal harmonies which take surprising harmonic turns. Mayo’s a cappella version of the Rodgers and Hart standard ‘I Didn’t Know What Time It Was’ is just under two and a half minutes of complete gorgeousness, with yet another of those heart-melting codas.

As well as impressive takes on ‘Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most’ and ‘Four’, Mayo’s energising account of Wayne Shorter’s ‘Speak No Evil’ features another metrical sleight of hand when its supercharged fusion tempo suddenly morphs into a half-time hip-hop feel.