Kathryn Joseph’s second album and first for Rock Action cemented her as one of the country’s most affecting and emotionally charged songwriters. Following on from her debut release bones you have thrown me and blood i have spilled – released through Hits The Fan – Joseph’s prowess and confidence is in vital abundance here.

Allowing her songwriting to breathe in space and allowing more abstract passages, glossolalia, sustained reverb-drenched string-work and a more cinematic approach to her sound meant Joseph’s narratives feel like immediate stories, life-or-death laments. Kathryn Joseph’s piano playing is always so sensitive; soft when it needs to be, blurred and shapeless when necessary and able to blow up as volcanoes of emotion to soundtrack the towering prowess of her voice.

And what a voice. It was evident on her first record that her vocal tone and ability to bend it into lip curling, heart-stirring shapes but here it’s an instrument that spans the full spectrum of feeling. It’s often curled, quivering with emotion, waiting to leap out in a swirling hurricane. The ample production touches dress the songs but don’t overpower. Percussion bowed or played with beaters, subtle synth pulses and washes, tremolo picked guitar in the distance. It all adds up to what is a truly astonishing record in a career that clearly has still so much fruit to bear.