THE Devonian singer-songwriter takes a different tack on the follow-up to Every Kingdom. What comes next is a more diffuse and difficult album, but only in a good way, as Howard resists any pressure to produce a listener-friendly copy of his debt.

Approachable numbers such as Keep Your Head Up are replaced by more complex songs, darkly poetic lyrically and musically. This sounds like a heartbreak album, from that title track to the stand-out End Of The Affair, which starts taut and unwinds into a loose jam.

As before, Howard shares more than a passing slurred chord with the long-lost John Martyn, especially on the acoustic flurries of In Dreams (he’s a very good and inventive guitarist), while Time Is Dancing shares the Martyn gene, too. Yet Howard is very much his own man, here finding rare solace in She Treats Me Well, or raising anthem amid the dust of the closing track, All Is Now Harmed. Deep and emotional stuff.

Ben Howard plays Leeds Arena on April 23 next year.