Julien Baker @ Gorilla, Manchester, 24 Sep

"Oh, I love you too. Maybe not in the same way. But I do love you."

Julien Baker is doing everything on her own terms tonight. As above, she deals coolly with a particularly boisterous contingent down at the front of a not-quite-full Gorilla, with one patron in particular weirdly keen to wish her an early happy birthday for this coming Saturday. The venue's air con is switched off and rightly so; Baker's approach to her live shows is of the pin-drop variety and noisy distractions need keeping to a minimum.

By now, she's on the victory lap for last October's rapturously-received sophomore LP Turn Out the Lights. Her previous appearances in Manchester have both, understandably, been truncated affairs; she had little more than her quickfire (but gorgeously realised) debut Sprained Ankle to lean on when she made her local debut at The Deaf Institute in June last year, and her only visit until now on the latest album trail saw her opening superbly for Belle & Sebastian just up the road at the Bridgewater Hall back in March.

Over the course though, her modus operandi hasn’t changed a great deal. Her songs are raw on record and raw on stage, with Baker emerging tonight with just a guitar and leaning heavily on her loop pedal, particularly on the newer cuts. That’s not an issue; the emotional power of the songs relies far more on the profundity of the lyrics and the projection of her voice than on instrumental backing, as evidenced by a gripping early solo volley that includes the likes of Shadowboxing, Funeral Pyre and Sprained Ankle – the latter of which opens with the line 'Wish I could write songs about anything other than death.' Her blunt-force honesty defines her work but stretches beyond it too; she urges the crowd to head to Nashville-based support act Becca Mancari's next show, before quickly confessing that she said the same thing two nights ago in Paris without knowing whether or not Mancari was actually scheduled to return.

For a clutch of songs at the midpoint, Baker swaps guitar for keyboard and is joined by old friend Camille Faulkner on violin. They approximate Hurt Less and Go Home well – among others – but there’s something about the atmospheric production of the studio versions that seems to really complete those tracks; it’s missing tonight. When she returns to the six-string for an incendiary closing salvo that includes an endearingly dramatic take on Turn Out the Lights’ title track, you know, beyond doubt, why Baker is already being acclaimed at just 22 as one of her generation’s most emotionally literate songwriters. There’s also a sense that her songs might be a little bit much of a muchness now that she’s playing longer sets. Her contributions to the forthcoming boygenius EP, a collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, are stirring; hopefully, she can continue to spread her stylistic wings in her own right.