After the emotional heartland rock of her 2021 album First Time Really Feeling and the folk and Americana undertones of her earlier work, Liz Stringer signals a sonic reset on The Second High. Having recorded over a three-month studio stint in Brighton, England, the Australian expat focuses primarily on piano and keyboards and explores arrangements rooted in jazz, soul, and adult-contemporary pop. Opener “Coming Home” is airy and romantic despite a world-weary edge to the lyrics, while the title track adds funky flourishes in contrast with its stark message about not giving in to compulsion. Informed by Stringer’s almost decade-long sobriety, the song has grooves and gravity in equal measure. Self-actualization is a key theme across the album, with the songwriter not flinching away from personal accounting on “To Survive” (“I did what I did to survive”) as well as the closing “While I Was Dying,” on which she thanks God that she’s still here. “I’ll Never Abandon Myself Again” revisits the heartland thrust that she can do so well, but most of the musical reference points land closer to Dido, Sarah McLachlan, and Peter Gabriel. But if the overall mood is lighter, Stringer commits to some of her most resonant singing and honest lyrics to date.