With her incorporation of postpunk, prog rock, straight-ahead dance music and more, Emma-Jean Thackray already stood out as a very singular presence among the extraordinary cohort of graduates from London’s Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance that included the likes of Nubya Garcia, Joe Armon-Jones, Moses Boyd, Ezra Collective leader Femi Koleoso and more. But her second album, which emerged from a period of personal tragedy, and piles headlong into themes of neurodivergence, mental illness, extreme pain, suicidal ideation with disarming openness tempered with sharp wit, subtle poetry and an underlying indomitable optimism. Musically, Thackray cross-wires her influences more elegantly and intricately than ever, weaving what is simply one of the most distinctive sounds in 2020s music. Inspiring on multiple levels.