"Number 8": Sam Brown is back with a new album

"It's okay to be broken, it's okay to be blue," sings Sam Brown at the start of her first full album since 2007. Brown's vocals were damaged that year by a heartbreaking condition, but, as she sings later in Injured: "I will not hide, don't pity me and sigh."

And that's fair enough: if circumstances mean Brown doesn't have the vocal range that made her UK Top 5 single Stop! one of the 80s' supreme ballads, Number 8 demonstrates singing is about passion and commitment, and not technique.

Not For Anyone and Tribe could have become her familiar smoky jazz, but most of the album is a startling and confident reinvention as Alison Moyet's sterner cousin, while 4 To The Floor is as sharp as Brown's current peer Self Esteem for disco derangement.

Synth-pop suits Brown well for a singer who had enough rockist poise to regularly tour with Pink Floyd. The minimal Another Day allows Sam to bare her fangs in a manner to terrify Nine Inch Nails, whereas the pulsating Marionette resembles a mythical Orbital collaboration.

Made with her brother Pete Brown and long-time associate Danny Schogger, if you know nothing of Brown's backstory Number 8 would be a great artistic left-turn. Don't pity Brown, celebrate what an inspiring album she's made by any standards.