Music by Jeremy - 'Scenes from a Well Worn Path (Side Three)'

There's this appealing confidence in 'Scenes from a Well Worn Path (Side Three)' because Jeremy never sounds desperate to prove how clever the songs are.

They are clever, certainly, with references to Keynes, Macbeth, Fermat, Schrödinger and philosophical thought experiments all finding their way into the writing. But the real achievement is how naturally those talking points are folded into songs about ordinary life, love, money, uncertainty and the strange compromises people accept without always noticing.

This third section of a 24-track autobiographical double album marks a clear change in perspective. Where the earlier sides looked largely inward, 'Side Three' begins testing the world outside.

'No Price on Earth' establishes that direction beautifully by doing almost nothing dramatic. It focuses on the value of an uneventful day, finding meaning in the absence of catastrophe and refusing to force the observation into a larger declaration.

That restraint makes 'Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren' especially effective.

Named after Keynes's 1930 essay, the song considers the uncomfortable distance between promised abundance and the reality that followed. Opening with Macbeth's "fair is foul and foul is fair", he frames the problem as something society has gradually learned to accept. The image of a locked door and a room full of people eating says considerably more than a slogan ever would.

'The Letter' continues that fascination with uncertainty through Schrödinger's cat and the falling-tree paradox, while 'Market Square' strips everything back to observation, documenting an English market going about its business.

The songs throughout 'Scenes from a Well Worn Path (Side Three)' may contain economics, mathematics, philosophy and technology, but it never really feels academic. It has a curious edge to it, and that curiosity gives Music by Jeremy's writing the confidence to explore difficult questions without pretending the songwriter already knows the answer.