This first all-original collection from vocalist and songwriter Polly Gibbons, her ninth studio album, provides an ideal showcase for her capacious musical imagination. Arranged and produced by Gibbons and co-produced by her long-time, esteemed musical collaborator, James Pearson, it seamlessly draws together all of Gibbons’ musical loves, from soul and gospel to jazz and R&B.

‘Disappointed’ vibrates between the sinuous funk of its verse, where an offbeat unison keys/guitar line is overlaid with shimmering Hammond organ interjections, and the suddenly blossoming, stacked vocal harmonies of the chorus. The album strikes its most personal note with ‘Man of Moderation’, a soulful paean to Gibbons’ father which tugs at the heartstrings.

There are some lovely, ear-catching textural details too, not least the a cappella coda which lights up ‘It’s Hard To Love’, the sorrowing, introductory brass chorale of ‘Melonpolly’, and the agitated, slightly detuned synth line which weaves its way through the stream-of-consciousness ‘The Hare and the Toilet Seat’ (“I see a hare, on a chocolate brown field, with a rainbow behind it”). The album closes with the optimistic, life-affirming blast of ‘Towards the Sun’. Recorded at Old Jet studios in Gibbons’ native Suffolk, the album captures her many-sided artistry to perfection.