UK-Cypriot singer and songwriter Martha D Lewis stands out from the ‘female jazz vocalist’ crowd for two reasons: one is her voice, which is certainly distinctive (no coquette she!); the other is her commitment to overt social commentary in her songs, which certainly makes a change from the faux sophistication and attempts at seduction that some of her contemporaries go in for.

On this blues-tinged, almost spacey, album, her sixth (and recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Bath which accounts for the excellent sound and production) she is backed by a top-notch group of musicians who sculpt the soundscapes for her musical and lyrical visions. She tackles both the personal (‘Beneath the Surface’, with its pained refrain, “I’m only just believing/Believing I’m good enough”); and the more worldly – greed on ‘Liars Club’, tech threats on ‘AI Man’, and sex on the net and the dangers it presents to young people on the title track. Perhaps the standout cut is ‘Dawn’, a tender and timely meditation on grief (Lewis lost her ‘soulmate of 28 years’ recently) and the hope of new beginnings.

An acquired taste for some maybe, but it’s a taste worth the effort of acquiring. Martha D Lewis is a woman with something to say, and a powerful way of saying it. Well worth your attention and your pocket money.