Daughter @ The Ritz, Manchester, 21 October

Daughter’s broad appeal surprises, still. Not easily digested – they’re neither hook-driven nor anthemic – they should leave the indie crowd cold. And as for their alleged folk leanings, the jury’s out: an acoustic guitar and an earthy vocal has scope beyond mere tradition. And yet, here they are, ending the year as they began it: testing the agonising intimacies of debut album If You Leave, that unforgiving catalogue of love and loss, against the unpredictable whims of another rammed hall.

But Manchester locks on to them, and Daughter respond. How they play, it’s both measured and impassioned. They exchange nary a glance, inhabiting the songs and their own space within them. Elena and Igor speak only to offer bemused thanks, and you wonder if it doesn’t always work, this deep-seated focus that drives their set. Surely there are shows where the audience doesn’t come close enough, doesn’t dare engage at depth? Tonight, however, isn’t one of them.

Daughter dare to reveal themselves: played live, the songs continue to bloom. Winter gains volume and clout, Remi’s snare shaking the walls. Shallows uncoils and bruises, Elena ghosting the 'If you leave…' refrain as a new, scaled-up light show paints the band as backlit shadows. 'From the perfect start, to the finish line,' she sings during Youth: a pin-point dissection of both the momentum and the brevity of love. In line with their austere musicality, they re-model heartache, strip it of melodrama and self-pity. An encore of Daft Punk’s Get Lucky is played straight: smart move. After the unexpected attack of the main set, it makes for a perfectly pitched comedown.