I’ve been a Demi Lovato stan since the Don’t Forget era (the live version of Behind Enemy Lines on the iTunes Live EP? A classic only true enthusiasts will know!) – but I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive about this new era; mainly because A) the lead-in singles have felt a bit scattershot, and B) the fact that Anyone takes prominence at the very top of the tracklisting made me wonder if it was all going to be a very difficult, intense listen.

But actually, Dancing With The Devil… The Art Of Starting Over is a really, really great record. And it makes perfect sense from beginning-to-end, too: while the temptation would be to stick Anyone at the back of the tracklisting, it actually fits with the ~narrative for it to be at the start; before she then goes on to unpack those feelings further down the line. The Justin Tranter/Julia Michaels stuff in particular sounds really great; and I’m so so excited for the incredible (under-rated) Lauren Aquilina having some co-write credits too.

Anyway! We’re not here to talk about my own opinions! Actual music critics love it too.

There’s no Metacritic score yet, at time of writing, but the acclaim is rolling in: the Daily Telegraph have given a full five-star verdict, calling it a “redemptive pop classic”. They say that “with such strong narrative material, the balance between form and substance here ensures your interest never flags. Whatever Lovato has been through, she sounds like she is where she wants to be now.

“For an album drawing on despair and recovery, Dancing with the Devil… The Art of Starting Over is a life-affirming pleasure from top to bottom.”

NME give four stars – trusted aficionado Nick Levine says: “Powerful, purposeful and uncompromising, this is her definitive artistic statement to date. Demi Lovato is done pretending, and it really suits her.”

The Independent also award four stars, saying: “Yes, there’s a lot of therapy-speak, but Lovato grounds it with her warmth.”

They add: “Lovato repeatedly assures us she is doing well and (after a brief engagement with the fame-hungry actor who’s dusted off on the brisk 15 Minutes) is happy alone. She’s said that before and it hasn’t been true. But I hope it is now.”

There’s another four-star review in The Times, who say: “Lovato isn’t doing the usual Hollywood thing of telling us how blessed she is now that she has seen the light because from the sound of things she’s still in the thick of it.

“Eighteen songs of self-examination, plus a cover version of Tears for Fears’ perennial cry of existential angst Mad World, is quite a lot. And Lovato can slip into therapy-speak every now and then, particularly on the album’s corny closer, Good Place. Still, this unguarded outpouring on the impossible pressures of adolescent fame is proof that, now more than ever, pop stardom should come with a health warning.”

iNews are aboard the four-star train too. They say: “Lovato has had stand-out songs before – 2015’s Cruel for the Summer, for example – but never quite a cohesive album.

“She remedies that by echoing the peaks and troughs of recovery, the moments of pure relief and joy at being alive elevating even the minor swings and misses. She has pulled off an amazing trick: making an album about death that is full of life.”

On the less glowing side, there’s a mixed three-star write-up from the Evening Standard; who summarise that “most of the music – minor key piano, catchy choruses – is an ineffective translation of the soul she’s trying to bare.”

The Guardian also give three stars, saying: “It’s an album that is simultaneously shocking, laudable and a little underwhelming. That said, it comes with a happy ending, which for the moment is probably more than enough for the woman who made it.”

Dancing With The Devil… The Art of Starting Over is out now