As debuts go there isn’t anything particularly novel about this one from the London-based singer-songwriter: a break-up album with a slight twist in that our mononymous star had just moved to LA, so the feelings of loneliness and abandonment were compounded by the unfamiliar surroundings. However, Joni is enough of a pro (having spent her career thus far writing for others) that even when verging on cliché, there’s enough polish in the arrangements or a subversive turn of phrase to keep it interesting.

Her breathy, wispy delivery will recall any number of pop stars (a more earnest Norah Jones or a less dramatic Lana Del Rey) and she can do slow and contemplative (‘Castles’), acoustic-confessional (‘Birthday’, ‘Bucket List’), or even a bit pop-rock (‘Avalanches’). It’s uniformly slick and immaculately produced, but the best moments are when Joni deviates from the expected script. There’s an ambivalent tone throughout when considering the break-up, a nice reflection of the complex feelings that remain following a relationship, even if the final break itself is traumatic. There’s the expected resolution in ‘PS’, but the lingering affection is peppered elsewhere, like in ‘Birthday’ until the cutting rejoinder “but we’re not in love anymore.”

The album’s title track, and best song, is oddly reminiscent of Arab Strap’s ‘The First Big Weekend.’ The pick-scraped guitar, insistent percussion (not synthesised this time) and anxious pre-occupations are probably a (welcome) coincidence; a line like “I worry for a living / and I used to sleep at night” is straight out of the Moffat lyric-book.

Occasionally the paint-by-numbers approach doesn’t quite land: ‘The Tide’ feels inorganic in its mood-conjuring via handclaps and moody ambiance, like an audition for the next True Detective theme song, and ‘Still Young’ shares a jarring resemblance to Oasis’ ‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’ (or whichever Beatles  song they were ripping off) that distracts from the otherwise cohesive whole.

But any instrumental quibbles are more than offset by Joni’s open-hearted embrace of her own vacillating feelings, laid bare across these ten tracks and ending with an earned sense of coming out stronger following adversity.