Two years on from his last album ‘Violet Waves’ released in August 2020, Jeremy Tuplin announces a new single ‘Better Man’. Whether he returns as a better man or not, judging by the first line, “My baby’s got me doing the hoovering, guess she forgot I don’t even live here”, the jury’s out. It does however set the tone in this alternatively romantic song, one that goes on to outline a fragile, ego-centric performer and his relationship with his suffering partner. It’s a observational comment on both the self-indulgent psychology of the performer, this self-proclaimed “rock star” or “disco-Shakespeare” who also pleads with his lover not to “belittle me in front of my band”, whilst also providing a minutiae-level reflection of romantic love in all its beautiful complexity, the hold that one person can have over another, and travails of the mind in coming to terms with it all. Is it Tuplin himself, or one of his characters that he’s singing through, or are the boundaries too blurred to perceive the difference? Either way, and ultimately, in one way or another, it is love, and some kind of desire for self-improvement that wins the day.