Smith’s dream

Behind Hollie Smith in her home studio sits her electric piano and her sewing machine. One she used to write and record her fourth solo album, Coming in from the Dark. The other possibly might have proved useful, metaphorically at least, when it came to stitching it all together.

Because, as Smith explains via Zoom, although it was recorded in and around the lockdown era, it’s a grand tapestry of a record. One involving multiple studios, orchestras, string quartets, guest rappers, crooners and opera singers. One that took some unpicking of its lavish embroidery along the way. But one that’s stirring, dramatic and – while delivering plenty of Smith’s trademark vocal fireworks – gets its punch from its melodies and words.

Among the grander arrangements, there are songs that could be Bond themes (the title track) and at least one time-travel soul-opera – the closing , which starts with a baroque