After stints in musicals, narrating plays and more, Moyet lays down more stunning vocals in a return to her electro-pop roots.

Her first album since 2007, with a stint on the road in a reformed Yazoo and a solo best-of taking up some of the intervening years, Moyet avoided listening to anything while writing this record, produced by Guy Sigsworth.

It mixes classic song structures with dubstep breakdowns (the haunting album sign-off Run By The Tide), and cuts Moyet’s unmistakable vocals with a range of synth workouts.

Right As Rain is a punchy dancefloor hit in the making, squelchy bass and jangly synths lifted by a defiant, strident Moyet exclaiming: “If you can’t find peace in my arms, find disease in my arms, as you please in my arms”.

There’s moody atmospherics in Remind Yourself, a stately electro-ballad, A Place To Stay revels in theatrical drama, while Love Reign Supreme’s cutesy synth bleeps and airy manner apes The Postal Service and All Signs Of Life treads a fine line between lifeless and graceful.

The Minutes, all 40 of them, is enjoyable but not as groundbreaking as the hubbub hinted at.

3 stars