AFTER a break of eight years, the Irish singer-songwriter returns with his third album, a stunning collection of self-lacerating yet witty songs recounting his failures in love and other outings.

These songs embrace contradictory states, being cynical and romantic, gloomy and uplifting. The title track sets this spikey ball rolling as Rice pushes his voice towards a falsetto in a song that begins frail and bursts into moments of raw noise.

It Takes A Lot To Know A Man is a lovely, wise, weary hymn to relationships, while The Greatest Bastard is an amusing piece of self-examination after another doomed affair.

While the mood is dark, hope alights, especially on Trusty And True, which surges with optimism, a turn around all the more effective for what has gone before. After that late swelling, closing track Long Long Way winds down beautifully.

Throughout the instrumentation is lovely, especially the surging strings. An intimate album shot through with warm humanity.