In 2015, the gorgeous folk songs that featured on Flo Morrissey’s debut album Tomorrow Will Be Beautiful inspired glowing comparisons with Joanna Newsome, Cat Power and Vashti Bunyan. Three years later, she married the artist Benjamin Clementine and welcomed three children so it was only natural that music took a backseat as her family grew. Now Florence Clementine is no longer the person who she once was, both in life experiences, artistry and name. Yet that early talent she demonstrated has matured and metamorphosed, an evolution she captures with engaging reassurance and candour on her second album, One Mile Upstream, produced by Benjamin Clementine and which will be released on August 9 via Florence and Benjamin’s label Preserve Artists.

Florence shares the single ‘Transformation’ as an introduction to an album in which the forthright lyricism of Sister Rosetta Tharpe is a dominant inspiration. Set to a plaintive backdrop of acoustic guitars, as intimate and revealing as if you’re sat with her, Florence’s voice – beautifully expressive, but also distinctive in its agility – explores a lyrical theme which feels like a microcosm of the wider album’s themes.

Florence says, “Nine years pass in a blink and a lifetime, a lot has changed, and constant transformation has been at the helm, for myself and so many of us. Who are we when no one is looking? What is our purpose when we are alone? This song was written initially in 2016 on piano when I was 21, it began as a song to almost dispel and serenade the sabotage I come up against when creating or at a threshold of change. Having struggled to write new material since my first album and almost losing the passion to create, this song is a tribute to the constant dance with life, accepting when it is time to let go and begin again.

“Shortly after writing this song, I became a mother and a wife and have witnessed my children grow and change everyday. When I look at myself in the mirror I now see them, with new bright eyes. They brought a mirror to my choices and reignited this fire to share my voice again.”