A winning combination of first-rate songwriting, a compelling storytelling gift and a band which expertly charts the narrative ebb and flow, this fifth album from vocalist Sarah Moule once again returns to the gold mine of 300-plus songs penned by her husband, Simon Wallace, and the lyricist Fran Landesman (1927-2011) over an 18-year period. Ten of the 12 songs featured here receive their debut recording. The album opens with one of the great list songs, ‘Nothing Is Mine Now, which the duo completed on the day Landesman passed away in July 2011, and closes with the hushed intimacy of the title track, penned on the day the duo first met in 1993.

The song settings are impressively varied, ranging from the vast sonic space opened up by ‘After The Fall’ and the swinging ‘Fool's Gold’ to the heart-melting delicacy of ‘The Long Arm Of Love’ and the subtle metrical shifts of ‘On Hold/Living In Limbo’. As evidenced by ‘Time Is The Beast’, Landesman is no stranger to the striking couplet (“Time is the beast, feasting on beauty's face, biting the dunce's ankle, trumping the hero's ace”). The set features a terrific central performance by Moule, who sings throughout with complete conviction and technical command, not to mention freshness and insight. Produced, recorded and mixed by Wallace, whose immaculate playing squeezes the bitter­sweetness out of every note, the album features pitch-perfect contributions from a number of other long-time musical collaborators.