It’s true — if you persist and persevere for long enough the wheel turns and you become if not once again fashionable then at least re-evaluated and admired. Though he is Waterford born, 75-year-old Gilbert O’Sullivan is a prototypically an English songwriter who is experiencing a justified resurgence in popularity. It began, following years of semi-wilderness, with his self-titled 2018 album, which placed him in the UK Top 20 for the first time since 1974.

Driven, his 20th studio album, steps up the pace with music styles straight out of the decade he was most commercially successful in, and while there are no shock revelations here it is impossible to deny that when it comes to self-possessed songs full of smart everyday wordplay, there are very few that can match O’Sullivan. Admittedly, some of the tracks (Love Casualty, Take Love, You Can’t Say I Didn’t Try) are ingrained with 1970s MOR sensibilities that make you thankful glam and punk came along, but the flip side is a batch of quality pop songs (including Blue Anchor Bay, Body and Mind, Let Me Know, What Are you Waiting For?, Back and Forth) that stand up to anything you care to throw at them.

Another tune, If Only Love Had Ears, is easily one of O’Sullivan’s best: a meandering orchestral, McCartney-like piano ballad that hits the sweet spot in a way only effortlessly good songs do. gilbertosullivan.co.uk