There’s a delicious irony at the heart of Melanie Baker’s debut album. The running theme throughout Somebody Help Me, I’m Being Spontaneous! is an inability to get off the sofa, the shame of a messy flat and the paralysis of doing nothing and being mentally tormented by it. Despite singing about feeling unaccomplished, Melanie Baker has delivered a very accomplished debut album that’s consistently funny and emotionally rich throughout.

Opening the album with a scream on AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! is a chaotic and funny statement of intent followed by Sad Clown as the first proper track holding the verse-chorus confidence of a great indie single with a lazy, grungy swing and lyrics that are confessional and witty. The third track HAHA! is a tremendous single about doing nothing and being judged for it, coming up with excuses to stay on the sofa and rot in front of the television. The chorus reframes the laugh track from Friends as a taunt repeating and repeating to remind you of everything else you should be doing. It’s clever and enormously funny.

Bored is about being bored of someone else’s excuses, and Cabin Fever is a punk tearaway that’s sunny and bouncy with buckets of thrashy distortion that’s gone in less than a minute. My Head Fell Off Last Night feels like a horrible stop motion dream, and isn’t entirely pleasant to listen to unless you enjoy things that are grungy, messy and off-putting. The songs throughout the whole album are catchy and easy to understand, and Baker’s band are always tight and having fun behind her, giving the whole thing a live energy.

On City Strange Baker strips everything back with a fingerpicked and heavily reverbed song that recalls the closeness of Liz Phair and Bye, Bye Loser Blues is even more intimate with an acoustic guitar and a harmonica as simple and direct as early Bob Dylan. Slugs arrives as the penultimate track and takes you on a journey that starts almost silent and builds and builds towards a huge crashing grunge climax. A magnificent song about the shame of living in a messy environment and not having enough energy to deal with it, Slugs is so powerful that it makes you forget how short the album has been.

In thirty two minutes you’ve been taken from high to low, from loud to quiet, from shout to a whisper, and Melanie Baker is so consistently funny that the devastating emotional power of the record sneaks up on you. The concept of writing and recording really great songs about being a lazy, unaccomplished mess is hilariously ironic, and Baker is very, very good at what she does.

Somebody Help Me, I’m Being Spontaneous! is short, but feels considerably longer because of the emotional punch it packs. Anyone who has ever felt the exhaustion of low wages and commodified dreams will find a lot that speaks to them on Melanie Baker’s great debut.