STEVEN James Adams should have a place in your house already from his days of bittersweet country-blues, scorched soul melodies and frustrated, cussedly witty tales of hope, heartbreak and heartache in The Broken Family Band and Singing Adams.

He has had his fill of bands, but not of wringing out his emotions, going solo to make “music exactly the way I wanted, with people I love dearly and no compromises”. Solo, maybe, but all manner of old friends and new acquaintances have contributed to sessions recorded at home in Walthamstow, London – hence House Music – and the Cambridge studio of Neil Rogers, his former compadre in his long-forgotten early band, Hofman.

Dan Mangan chipped in from Vancouver; fast-rising John Smith, The Vaccines’ Justin Young, Lau’s Martin Green and guest vocalists Emily Barker and Inge Thomson all embellish Adams’s lyricism. Their involvement indicates how Adams should be more than a voice in the wilderness. House music to live by, not dance to.