"I've avoided doing this album for a long time for the simple reason that I've already done these songs. I finally said yes 'cause we agreed to do it live at my keyboard player's house: just set up like an acoustic gig and play. People tend to like the intimacy of that. It has a certain energy and I think it works."

Intimate doesn't mean gentle, as the opening salvo of Renéessance makes bracingly clear. Untreated and unaccompanied, Renée Geyer's full-throttle entry into the reggae classic, Dedicated To The One I Love, serves notice of an album easy on amps but as highly charged as her most soulful work.

So full and commanding is the voice at the heart of these recordings – from the playful Cuban pop of Say I Love You to the explosive emotion of It's A Man's, Man's, Man’s World – that it takes a few spins to realise it's accompanied only by the spare keys of Bruce Haymes and Jeff Burstin's acoustic guitar.

The fresh and immediate approach gave Renée new access to rarely performed classics such as Stares & Whispers. The naked arrangements of Heading In The Right Direction and If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Wanna Be Right) hone perennial Australian radio staples to their essence.

"A lot of these songs were not necessarily that easy to put into an acoustic form," Renée says. "Some of them are there because I do them every night and I love them forever, some are on there because they're important songs in my career. I'm just hoping I did justice to them all."

She may have "already done these songs," but Renéessance finds Renée singing as if she's feeling every one of them for the very first time: immediate impressions in startling single takes that reconfirm her unassailable position as Australia's premier soul vocalist.

See the wonderful and unique talents of Renée Geyer live at a venue near you