Last year, when Absolutely Yours released the sweetly compelling , the whisper was that an even better album was not too far behind. Well, the rumours were correct. takes everything that was great about and moves it all up a notch. The title song is a mellifluous eddy of twinkling guitar with a nicely building tide of sound that hits a satisfying peak as it ends and leaves us with the loaded question, “How do I cut through the dark?”

As a singer, Bridget Collins possesses the clarity and purpose to steer clear of over-emoting but still frames the emotions of the songs with heartbreaking effectiveness. The songs of cut through in mostly subtle ways, tweaking your senses, dragging on memories buried by accident or design.

But what helps set Absolutely Yours apart from empty genre copycats is the sense that their music is driven by real feeling, not by the desire to rebuild the sound of classic dream-pop or simply to pay tribute to someone’s favourite artist: this is emphatically not an AI simulation.

For those wanting a shortcut to everything great that has to offer, look no further than “Margaret” to start. A song of compassion for the misunderstood, it's ushered in by a pleasingly chunky bassline before ascending to a more ethereal zone where it pulls emotional strings with an elegant economy of sound, letting the guitar lines hang in the air while a subtle keyboard riff etches out the melancholy.

Elsewhere “Eros Bow” reminds us of the C86-style jangle embedded deep in the band’s DNA while closer “The Asters” features a lovely solo piano intro and a coda that lets the guitars off the leash, its lilting mood of crepuscular nostalgia rivalling the Smiths at their most sensitive.

At its best, can feel like a cool breeze when the world feels overheated, but one that stirs the heart and leaves something behind – proof that dream-pop doesn't only have to mean disappearing into the mist. Music as a way to navigate the dark? There will always be a place for that.