Torres: Sprinter (Partisan)

For her second album Brooklyn-based Mackenzie Scott aka Torres shreds her past and soul on nine gripping songs.

Some throb with love but latent menace (Son You Are No Island), some compelling for quiet intimacy (the seven minute-plus closer The Exchange about a child given up for adoption) and others furious synth'n'guitar-rock, close to poetically revealing Patti Smith and howling Nirvana.

The title track is an excoriating damning of those who should have a child's best interests at heart but fails them. And the subsequent emotional cost.

Lyrically these songs peel back layers in imagery which is religious, sexual and literary but she also tells stories (two running parallel on A Proper Polish Welcome) and possesses a rare honesty.

One of the year's best.