It is an apt theme for our current world and for Missy Higgins' fifth album – one that brims with both despair and hope as she returns with her first collection of original material since 2012.

Lead singles Futon Couch and Cemetery are slickly produced, dance floor-ready pop earworms, but elsewhere Higgins retains her quiet singer-songwriter roots, with the piano-led Starting Again recalling the melancholy of Cat Power, and the simplicity of The Difference evoking her stripped-back early days.

Higgins flirts with electronic production throughout the record to mixed results: autotuned closing track The Old Star sounds remarkably out of place, but Hallucinate soars with it.

Personal and political spheres are melded throughout the album, with the sombre 49 Candles raising questions about gun violence in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting, and others ponder how to make the world a better place for Higgins' children.

Solastalgia is the sound of a seasoned songwriter moving forward and settling into a comfortable new groove.