SARAH McQuaid will play Victoria Hall in Settle on May 24 as part of a world tour promoting her fifth solo album If We Did Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous.

The UK-based singer/songwriter has worked in the album with guitar icon Michael Chapman, and a documentary video has been made of the recording process.

Musings on mortality dominate this recording, but it’s by no means all gloom: “Break Me Down” is possibly the cheeriest song ever written about decomposition, while “One Sparrow Down” takes a similarly upbeat approach to the death of a bird hell-bent on attacking its own reflection.

In the liner notes for the album, Sarah thanks her cat Nightshine – who watched the sparrow from its window – for contributing guest vocals to the track.

A cover of Jeff Wayne’s melancholy “Forever Autumn” leads into an arrangement for voice and guitar of “Dies Irae”.