Album: Edwyn Collins, Understated (AED)

We know he can write a tune and is, as he puts it, "a singer of sorts", but can Collins still produce the goods post the health traumas of 2005?

A growing body of evidence would suggest so, with the opening tune here, "Dilemma", being so pure and powerful a slice of soul-pop that Collins presents it later with different lyrics as the title track. Throughout, we get a wounded and fragile man setting his hope-filled heart to music. Life-affirming.