This is Beth Orton’s first album in six years and, pleased to report, it’s replete with the kind of soul-baring, and soul-lifting, songs we’ve come to expect from her. It was written, apparently, on an old battered piano she saved from Camden Market. I don’t know if that has contributed to the sense of timelessness that these melodies have been imbued with, but that timelessness is definitely there. These songs have been given room to breathe as she touches on struggle, truth, healing and beauty. JL

Released 23 September on Partisan Records