Mancunian singer Mica Millar displays an array of soulful influences on her richly explorative debut album. Flavoured with retro soul, piano-driven balladry, and blue-eyed soul midtempos, Heaven Knows is a tight, cohesive project deserving of the buzz its generating.

In lead single ‘Preacher Man’, Millar wraps a soul-searching message (‘you weren’t made to work nine to five‘) around a brooding, pulsing arrangement powered by gospelly hand claps. She continues this sentiment in the more explicitly anti-capitalist ‘No Money, Nor Faith (Freedom)’.

She lands wider motivational messages on the bright, female-empowerment anthem ‘Girl’ (the album’s poppiest track, released to celebrate International Women’s Day), and the satisfying ‘face your fears’ track ‘Trouble’. The occasional lyrical platitude is forgiven by the crispness of the production and the pleasures of Millar’s throaty vocal.

Millar taps into darker energies when exploring her romantic experiences. She snappily rebukes a lover on ‘More Than You Give Me’ – a slice of the tight blue-eyed soul you would have expected from Amy Winehouse or Duffy – and is at her most raw on swampy breakup tune ‘Fools Fate’. Operating within the common conventions of soul music, her strong vocal performances lift torch ballads ‘Will I See You Again’ and ‘Stay’.