Jane Weaver has spent her career in a slipstream entirely of her own devising. The cult Cheshire songwriter’s albums have swerved from psychedelic folk to experimental indie pop – their one consistency is her reluctance to be pinned down to a specific sound. She has another surprise in store on Love in Constant Spectacle , her first standalone LP in three years and a project recorded in the shadow of her father’s death. Her big departure is her decision to collaborate with PJ Harvey wingman John Parish. It’s the first time she has brought in an outside producer, and it proves an inspired choice. Parish’s spooky sonic sorcery is the perfect foil for Weaver’s wistful voice on opener “Perfect Storm”. Meanwhile, on the title track, the duo whip up a swampy ballad built around a shimmering guitar and vocals that pack a haunting punch. Love in Constant Spectacle is full of unexpected turns. One moment, Weaver dabbles in spectral acoustic pop (“Motif”). The next, she delivers nerve-shredding post-punk, topped off with darkly diaristic lyrics (“Is Metal”). Sometimes, it is just ludicrously catchy. “Romantic Worlds”, for instance, features a chanted verse before opening into a looping synth line that twinkles amid Parish’s melancholic production. Read Next Vampire Weekend were the world's most annoying band. How things have changed It also devastatingly personal in places. The mournful “Univers” is about the “anticipatory grief” Weaver experienced as her father’s health declined. The feelings it articulates are universal. We will all eventually have to say goodbye to a loved one this way. Weaver perfectly captures that sense of dislocation in which existential despair and the grind of normality live side by side. The album finishes with a shift into unsettling folk pop with “Family of the Sun”. As an ominous organ strikes up, Weaver sings dissonantly, only for the song to explode into a spiritually affirmative new-wave bop. Swirling, surreal, and beautifully disorienting, it is a powerful conclusion to a stunning album. Stream: “Perfect Storm”, “Family of the Sun”