Singing Ways to Feel More Junior

Since finding his solo mojo with What's Here What's Gone, praised in these very pages for repurposing the kind of ambitious folk-rock once associated with the likes of Gene Clark, Luke Daniels (sometimes the melodeon player in Cara Dillon's band or the Riverdance Orchestra) could hardly have offered up a more satisfyingly diverse bunch of solo albums. Revolve & Rotate found Daniels fashioning instrumental pieces for a 19th-century Polyphon machine and live performer, while for last year's Making Waves, hundreds of archived performances of Scottish, Irish and American folk musicians from the last century were processed, detuned, warped, layered and combined with live parts.

Musically, this album has occasional echoes of his last, but more in common with his debut. Lyrically, Daniels seems as vexed by the current state of the world as most, tackling gender inequality, addiction, child-targeted consumerism and, inevitably, president Trump. But it closes optimistically, with a fine version of Stevie Wonder's ‘Don’t You Worry 'Bout a Thing'.