The piano playing dreadlocked Belfast singer-songwriter's first album offered a cocktail of Motown, Brian Wilson, West Coast pop and Neil Hannon while the better-selling follow up, Songs From The Deep Forests, nodded to Billy Joel and Broadway musicals. Here though, on numbers such as If I Don’t Feel It, Let Me Go (Please Please Please) and Mockingbird Wish Me Luck, album number three's swashes of pastoral pop frequently finds him sounding a lot like the Lilac Time's Stephen Duffy.

However, there’s some interesting stylistic variations from past form. If carnival waltzer I Never Thought This Day Would Come reprises his deep seated affection for 30s Music Hall, the naggingly catchy Sweet Sweet Kisses is a brass punching slice of Northern Soul, Diggin’ An Early Grave suggests Tom Waits gone mazurka ska, while Flesh And Blood Dance mixes up ragtime piano with various hints of Weimar cabaret, gypsy melodrama and even a brief burst of drum clattering and some voodoo circus barker.

Given the songs are predominantly downbeat if not downright morbid, much of it takes a while to get used to with the 'difficult' Bernard Butler co-penned Those Proverbs We Made In The Winter Must End requiring the biggest struggle to secure a place in your heart. But it's ultimately worth the effort with the swoonsome melancholy of Why Does Anybody Love? sure to prove the collection's enduring fan favourite.