Rae Morris live review, Heaven, London: Pure joy on stage, with confidence matching that of her new record

Addressing the crowd in her breathy Northern accent, she’s exhilarated, jubilant and incredibly humble

Blackpool’s Rae Morris has stepped out to define her sound with ‘Someone Out There’ (Alamy)

Heaven, under the arches of London’s Charing Cross station, fills up fast. It’s the final stop of Blackpool-born Rae Morris’s Someone Out There tour showcasing her second record, which sees her smart art-pop come into its own.

Morris kicks off with the album’s opening track, “Push Me to My Limit”, a brooding number which sets her incredible vocals against a barely there synth backdrop. She uses her voice like Björk, with that same elasticity and expression; at no point throughout the show does it falter.

This segues into the 8-bit opening of the explosive “Reborn”, which seems apt as we see her transform into a ball of energy that owns every bit of the stage and moves like Kate Bush on speed.

The new record steps away from Morris’s piano-led 2015 debut Unguarded into more abstract, electro-pop territory, reminiscent at times of Imogen Heap, with her songwriting charting the highs and lows of a romance between her and collaborator Fryars.

Her honesty reaches a giddy excitement in the banger “Do it” (“We could write another duet/Or instead babe, we could just do it”), which really gets the crowd moving. This contrasts with the slower, hugely atmospheric “Wait for the Rain”, in which Morris’s vocals cascade into lush, textured synths, as she calls for rain “to make a woman of me again”.

Fan favourites are interspersed between tracks from the new record. There’s the catchy Nineties beat of “Love Again”, and everyone sings along to “Under the Shadows”.

Addressing the crowd in her breathy Northern accent, she’s exhilarated, jubilant and incredibly humble. A tender moment comes as she provides some insight into Someone Out There’s closing track, “Dancing With Character”, about a couple dancing together, and later, a widower dancing alone, in a Blackpool working men’s club.

Supported throughout by a band and backing singer, allowing her to dart between piano, synth and mic, she steps off after twirling her way through the bouncy “Atletico”; coming back on to bring things home with “Lower the Tone”, “Don’t Go” – a stripped-down track which gave her career a boost when it was featured on Channel 4’s Skins – and finally Someone Out There’s title track: an optimistic tribute to the lonely that seems a little too easy compared to other tracks on this record, but the crowd lap it up.

Morris is a pleasure to behold; she’s pure joy on stage, and her performance matches the new record’s confidence. She’s stepped out on her own and is reaping the rewards. This is an artist at the top of her game.