It has been six months since Christopher Owens left Girls, ambitions unfulfilled, disillusioned with the project he started and was increasingly carrying. Despite the ­ five years he spent as frontman, Girls only ever released two full-length albums. Thankfully, though, it would appear that Owens, the man some dubbed “this generation’s Kurt Cobain”, is making up for lost time.

Owens’ songwriting has always appealed through its vulnerability, the sense of emotional honesty it arouses, and this - more than ever - is evident in his new record. This is no small part due to the upcoming album’s concept; written entirely in one night, aside from an epilogue looking back one year on, Lysandre is a personal account, in his own words ‘a coming of age story, aroad trip story, a love story’.

The album seems to mark, in some ways, a deliberate shift away from Girls. Previous EPs could be accused of incoherence - rousing ballads followed by tender moments of reflection - but Lysandre, composed entirely in one key, has a much more complete feel. The opening track, ‘Lysandre’s Theme’, drifts sweetly into ‘Here We Go’, perhaps the strongest stand-alone song of the album. Owen’s soft voice wisps effortlessly over delicate guitar and flute parts, perfectly capturing a sense of new beginnings.

Each song revisits Lysandre’s theme in one way or another, and these are often the most powerful moments of the album. In the otherwise franticly excited ‘Here We Go Again’, the theme feels reminiscent, an unexpected daydream, whereas ‘Closing Theme’ provides some much needed respite from the overwhelming ‘Everywhere You Knew’.

Even the clichéd saxophone in ‘New York City’, a song largely spoiled by its dominance, is slightly redeemed by association with its rendition of the theme at the track’s end. Owens is known for being an intelligent, emotive lyricist, and in this debut solo album he fails to disappoint. Aside from ‘Love is in the Ear of the Listener’, which verges on hackneyed, Owen’s vocals are a highlight, always unquestionably sincere.

Owens has become something of an unlikely iconic ­figure in the arts world, now the face of Hedi Slimane’s YSL relaunch. There is little doubt though, that music remains his main passion recently stating that, regardless of commercial success, he wants to make music for the rest of his life. Not that he feels such success is beyond him; he has also spoken about building the legacy he was not able to with Girls. Lysandre is as a good a start to that long-foretold legacy as he could have possibly hoped for.