Hugo Manuel is back with his sophomore album — an exploration in identify and a return to the places that comfort us, especially when we return a different person.

The record was written between London, where he lived for years with his long-term girlfriend, and Oxford, the town he came home to when their relationship ended. That transition is evident across the album’s nine tracks, perhaps mostly on slow-burners "Labasa" and "Seventeen." The former of which is the namesake village in Fiji where his grandmother was born.

Unlike previous material, but embodying the spirit of this batch of music, Hugo’s voice appears higher in the mix and rinsed clean of effects. Working with producer Joel Ford, the music is also starker, providing Hugo the space to do more with less.