After forming in Newcastle in the early 1990s, the Lighthouse Family shifted 10m records of wistful-euphoric soul to a vast constituency that ranged from nu-soul purists to Mondeo man. Having recently reunited, the duo don’t stray far from the original blueprint for their first album in 18 years.

Blue Sky In Your Head is full of trademark gently aspirational, universal anthems, crafted around Paul Tucker’s big piano and Tunde Baiyewu’s quietly yearning vocals. In the opening title track, the singer dreams of a “different life when trouble just goes away” – almost exactly the same sentiments to those that fired their megahit Lifted in 1996.

What has changed are their ages and the world around them, and in subtly shifting from youthful positivity to mature melancholy and global frets, they have acquired a fresh emotional edge. Baiyewu addresses a “world where nothing is real any more” and brings existential dread to Long Goodbye’s orchestrated sheen.

One or two tracks get a bit beige and samey, and weather metaphors abound. Still, Clouds and Live Again are truly lovely songs, which find a hymnal sweet spot between agony and ecstasy. Who’s Gonna Save Me Now? seems to allude to their own story (“I’m just trying to get back to our glory days”) but Waterloo Street (“It’s just me and you and everything’s so effortless”) is the euphoric sound of a duo rekindling their spark.