While enjoying a whirlwind year promoting ‘Drive to Goldenhammer’ album, Divorce’s Felix Mackenzie-Barrow has somehow found time to release a self-titled solo album under the name ‘Book of Churches’. Describing the writing process as ‘incredibly DIY’ and ‘kind of naive’, each song was written in one day and recorded the next, leaving a raw account of love, loss, birth, death and frustration…

Lead single ‘Song By a Stranger’ opens the album with its retrospective sadness – ‘You tried to warn me and I tried to listen but I put all of my love in the land’ – before things take a Willy Mason-esque alt-folk turn on ‘All the Good Things’. Felix recalls take a loved one to the bathroom in the cold, before grieving memories take over: ‘I prayed to God the night she went away’. ‘There You Go I Love You’ is a genteel and gorgeous song full of heartbreaking admissions about ‘coming back to an empty chair and how ‘I can’t/won’t go home tonight’.

‘North Atlantic Ocean’ has Felix recalling a time he spent in an airport waiting area with a packet of cigarettes and six-pack of beer before fondly remember how ‘in the electrical storm, we held each other warm’. Recent single ‘The Quiet Was a Heron’ is also intimate and introspective, reminding us of mid-2000s genteel cult hero Adem: ‘The summer is over, the nights are growing cold. ‘I Lean’ offers a stream of consciousness about losing footing, wearing headphones and ringing a bell, bringing to mind Super Furry Animals as Felix declares ‘We’re going to Hell’.

‘Big Love’ asks big questions like ‘Will it always look like this?’ with searing honesty, while ‘Hard Ride’ is also super sweet with is messages of love: ‘I kissed your hand and hold it to my brow’. ‘Catalpa in the Sky’ finds Felix making a plea to ‘learn to love what I’m afraid of’ amidst Antlers-style atmospherics before ‘Stones in Your Bag’ brings the record to a close in poignant fashion, Felix capturing the essence of Sparklehorse as he asks: ‘What the hell do we do?

‘Book of Churches’ is one you’ll want to devour. Just prepare for passion and heartbreak along the way.