Arriving ten years after Lulu's impressive 2004 comeback Back on Track, 2015's Making Life Rhyme is every bit that record's equal and perhaps it's better in some ways.

Working from a set of nearly all-original material for the first time ever -- there are two covers among these 11 songs, including Jimi Hendrix's "Angel" done in the style of Rod Stewart's covers -- Lulu sounds free and inspired by the retro-soul revivals of the past decade.

In a sense, the success of Adele and Amy Winehouse has freed Lulu to indulge her love of old-fashioned girl group pop and hopping Tamla-Motown, but there's also a fair amount of bluesy grit here, surfacing even on the buoyant bounce of "Every Single Day." This is evidence of how Lulu doesn't play a strict stylistic revivalist here: she's blurring the lines between R&B and Brill Building, soul and girl group pop, coming up with a vivid, spirited record that ranks among her very best.