When I met Alison Moyet recently to discuss Other, her first album for four years, she told me she would be very keen to get back into producing more drama. Here’s the thing: she never stopped doing it.

The answer was a direct response to the prospect of revisiting the success of her theatre work, after shows such as the musical Chicago and comedy-drama Smaller, where she co-starred with her good mate Dawn French. On evidence of her latest music, you could say both careers still overlap.

During our chat, I wasn’t shy in admitting that as soon as I discovered Alison was once again teaming up with producer Guy Sigsworth, I let out an audible squeal of elation. Following its release in 2013, I decided that The Minutes was her most realised album to date, and certainly my favourite in a long list of triumphs for the singer-songwriter. In hindsight, it now has competition.

It perhaps isn’t surprising to hear that Alison and Guy’s working relationship is something that feels completely natural and relaxed for them both. Moyet and Sigsworth united is like an update of the Yazoo days – a familiar-but-fresh tech touch to this Billericay girl’s modern day lyrical prose.

“He gets me,” Alison said. “I haven’t got to explain myself to him. There’s a whole language that we both know.”

Whilst Other most certainly has some of the sounds of its predecessor, it’s quite a different collection of songs. These are tracks here that slowly creep under the skin. There are no obvious singles here. But don’t let that put you off.

Opening the album is the brilliantly brooding, ‘I Germinate’, where Alison’s poetic storytelling gets the wholly sufficient and thrilling soundtrack that it deserves. ‘Lover, Go’ drops the pace for something more chilled and spirited; its graceful and sweeping chorus melodies will have you swooning. ‘Beautiful Gun’ salutes her rock roots with a fiery punk blues quality that may remind you of Alison’s 1991 album Hoodoo and revive those Depeche Mode connections (Moyet shared the same label, Mute, back in the early 80s with bandmate Vince Clarke, who also played keyboards in the band).

‘Reassuring Pinches’, the first single choice, is the instant standout for me. Alison’s vocal delivery is effortlessly controlled and the tumbling arpeggios will leave you woozy and breathless. It begs the question: “Has Alison ever been approached to write a Bond theme?” Of course she has.

‘April 10^th‘ is a sweet surprise as it is completely spoken-word. Think Imogen Heap’s ‘Neglected Space’. Alison’s dialogue is completely hypnotic throughout. I’m not the world’s most ardent poetry expert by any means, but I’m screaming out for a Moyet poetry audiobook.

“Today I have hope / Will you have none? / Hunker down in bell jar space made strange / This hour in this light / I wonder if you’ll touch me in some other sea / Against my yesterday skin.”

Beautiful.

We are accustomed to Alison’s charmingly frantic and fervent delivery in interviews, but this is serene and seductive, and quite unlike anything we’ve heard before. OK, there are quite possibly elements of Yazoo’s haunting B-side ‘Winter Kills’ here, but that exquisite, stubborn little track will always be sitting on my musical timeline.

I hope I am not doing Alison Moyet a disservice by saying there is plenty of drama in Other; for this isn’t soap opera fare; this is resplendently cinematic. If you have enjoyed Alison’s work since the heady synth-pop days in the early 1980s, right up to The Minutes, you will be rewarded here. Other is a vivid amalgamation of her very best work and her vocal is flawless throughout, particularly on the gorgeously poignant title track.

With its bright, observant, lyrical intelligence, this is an album that is clearly the result of lots of watching. And whilst this is a piece of work that is undoubtedly the acknowledgment of enduring, personal life experiences, Other is an album that you can sink yourself into; a record where you can close the door, switch the lights off, and shut out the world. And God knows we need that right now.

Alison Moyet’s ninth studio album Other is released via Cooking Vinyl on 16 June. Watch my interview with Alison below.