Avenoir

Yorkshire-born singer-songwriter Calum Scott is looking back on himself but moving forward, a concept inspired by the invented word Avenoir, from which his third album borrows its title. Jubilant pop-rock anthem “Lighthouse” and sunny stomper “Roots” get the record off to a high spirited start, giving way to the yearning and regret at the core of Scott’s artistic vision. Whether lamenting lost love on raw, exposing ballad “God Knows” or plotting out an idealised romantic future across the soft, piano-based triple whammy of “Lose Myself”, “Gone” and “Mad”, Scott’s vocal is always tuned to the right emotional pitch. But it’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)”—which finds him harmonising across the ages with the late Whitney Houston on a stripped-back duet version of her enduring 1987 hit—that proves to be Avenoir’s most fascinating experiment with the flow of time.