At the risk of putting everyone off, this is a concept album that follows a narrator caring for an emotionally abusive partner who is dying from cancer. The lyrics are stunning, blending ‘reportage’ and imagery, dreams and wakefulness, capturing perfectly the sense of unreality that a life spent in and around a hospital brings and incisively documenting the twists and self-deception involved in an abusive relationship. This incredibly grim subject matter is given a range of beautiful, stirring musical settings. Brass sections uplift gentle acoustic ballads, electric guitars chime and sing; at least two songs have the kind of melodies that make you think “Surely I’ve heard that before – it can’t have taken however many hundreds of years of the western twelve note scale for someone to come up with a tune as moving as that”. Peter Silberman sings all of this in a voice that moves from Sufjan-style delicacy to a quavering emotionalism reminiscent of Buckley, J.