Kevin Bronson on September 9th, 2015

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Shana Halligan’s forthcoming “Back to Me” is a breakup album, or, more specifically, a post-breakup album that circles back to the simple empowerment theme of being all right with yourself. The singer-songwriter was one-half of the trip-hop duo Bitter:Sweet, who made their mark with the 2006 album “The Mating Game;” she’s collaborated and co-written with the likes of the Thievery Corporation and System of a Down’s Serj Tankian; and in 2011 she went solo, releasing an EP that year and a full-length the next. Her new effort, out Oct. 16 via Plug Research, is a sleek, soulful and slab of jazz-informed electronic pop with production that subtly slips between the retro (like opener “Get Gone”), the modern (“Tired of Alone,” “Can’t Live Without Your Love”) and a sensual combination of both (“Freak”). Considering that the album is a snapshot of Halligan’s feelings as she was moving on from one relationship, it’s somewhat ironic that “Back to Me” was finally being finished when she was in another — and at the time she found out she was pregnant. (She became a mom in July.) Maybe all that catharsis worked? It certainly makes for good listening.

||| Stream: “So Crazy” (an album bonus track that is available for free download here) and “Been Waiting”