Lady Blackbird‘s acclaimed debut Black Acid Soul was an austere collection of deep-soul covers. The American singer – real name: Marley Munroe – promoted the album at venues like London’s Union Chapel, mesmerising audiences with her pained readings of tunes from Irma Thomas, Nina Simone, and Sam Cooke. Her recently released second album Slang Spirituals, by contrast, pairs her terrific, whiskey-drenched vocals with a fuller sound on an entirely original track list, diversified with notes of country, funk, and folk.

She gave the album a bold outing at the London Palladium, backed by a small band including writing partner and musical director Chris Seefried. She entered the stage in a tightly corseted white number to looped refrains of the album’s opener ‘Let Not (Your Heart Be Troubled)’, her face veiled for the first few songs. We heard the psychedelic ‘When the Game is Played On You’ and, from Black Acid Soul, her signature cover of Nina Simone’s Civil Rights tune ‘Blackbird’, which she delivers with sinister bite. Whereas in the Union Chapel she navigated efficiently from song to song, here, she was more open and communicative with her audience, sharing welcome insights about, say, the queer subtext to her delicately phrased ‘Someday We’ll Be Free’.

For a singer who first captivated audiences with the intensity of her performances on songs like ‘Blackbird’, it was the lighter, looser moments in this set which were highlights, particularly country-inflected tunes ‘If I Told You’ and ‘No One Can Love Me (Like You Do)’. Her throaty roar lit up the anthemic choruses of ‘The City’ and churchy ‘Reborn’, while her encore of ‘Let Not (Your Heart Be Troubled)’ served to exorcise January misery – underscoring the powers of an artist who, after decades of almost making it, is confidently riding the wave of her continued success.