Red to BlueEMI Music Ireland ****

Reading between the lines of this album's history, it's clear this was no cakewalk for Mick Flannery. After White Lies, his 2008 breakthrough album, the intense Cork singer-songwriter found himself at odds with his muse. But Flannery persevered, and the result is this resolute, often melancholic but warmly reassuring collection. Thereare 12 tracks of varying quality, but all gain from the great emotional charge of Flannery's voice and the honest lyrics. They're also draped in imaginative arrangements, including chamber strings, muted brass and muscular blues rock. "I'm in need of no man's mercy," he sings on Down the Road, while on Heartless Man, Only Getting On, Ships in the Night and No Way to Live he stresses the loneliness of his solitary journey. His frustration is parsed in Gone Forever and Get That Gold, but happily he departs with Boston, enveloped in a warm waltz of love. mickflannery.com

Download tracks: Only Getting On, Get That Gold