From the angst of Millennial dating to a space tourism romance, sisters Nicola and Rosie Dempsey have created, by some distance, their most zeitgeisty and complete show to date. Sweet Release is full of memorable compositions and dryly, cynically, funny lines by the keyboard and percussion duo. But it’s the overarching intricacy of the show, its themes and motifs running between songs and a general sense of contemporary disaffection and tech-enabled self-persecution that sustains the hour. 

^{Picture: Matt Crockett}

Moreover, the pair appear to have tightened up their between-tune repartee, while simultaneously loosening their interactions with the audience, smoothly incorporating their improvisations and occasional corpsing, adding up to a performance that pleasingly bounds along. Highlights include a laundry list song of frenemies, barely tolerated for reasons both significant and trivial; a quite superb comedy of manners and snapshot of social humiliation escalating over decades; a lively swipe at the emboldening fearlessness of privilege and an arch, Dolly Parton-inspired cautionary offering about a woman’s walk home late at night.

Betwixt these satirical tunes though, there’s also space for a couple of throwaway oddities that are only tangentially linked (Alien Boyfriend), and a fun track about insatiable dancing that channels the spirit of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? Marvellous stuff.

Assembly Roxy, until 28 August, 8.10pm.