ADRIAN THRILLS: Take That star Mark Owen comes out of the shed and into the spotlight

MARK OWEN: Land of Dreams (BMG)

Verdict: Arena-ready anthems

Rating: ***

5 SECONDS OF SUMMER: 5SOS5 (BMG)

Verdict: sympathetic but formal

Rating: ***

BETH ORTON: Weather Alive (Partisan)

Verdict: Blurry and atmospheric

Rating: ****

With Take That on hiatus, members are working on solo projects. Gary Barlow is touring with his excellent one-man show, which ends in the West End on Sunday.

Robbie Williams, whose second stint with the group ended in 2011, will embark on a greatest hits tour next month, and Howard Donald was spotted parading his gear on ITV’s The Masked Dancer.

As there is no more collective activity until next year – when a new album is due – Mark Owen is also reviving a solo career that seemed to die after 2013’s low-key The Art Of Doing Nothing, a sheepishly titled album made in his garden shed studio. . The good news is that his latest release, Land Of Dreams, is a lot more enterprising.

Owen, 50, is coping well with the transition from pin-up boy band to middle-aged singer-songwriter. He played the Isle Of Wight and Latitude festivals this summer, and the arrival of Land Of Dreams today, plus an upcoming tour, suggests a serious return rather than a vanity project.

After moving to LA, the Oldham-born singer added an American sheen to his music by hiring American producers and session players. The result is a sun-drenched pop record that modernizes his sound and gives him space to express himself.

He acknowledges his man-band roots. ‘You only want me for my good looks, bad taste. . . supersonic hip tremor,” he jokes on You Only Want Me, making fun of his stage character.

Boy is a big, harmonious sing-along that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a Take That album. Mark provided lead vocals for the Take That hits Babe and Shine, and his new songs echo the clarity and verve of his vocals. This isn’t the most original record we’ll hear this fall, but Owen deserves full marks for range and versatility.

He channels Bee Gee Barry Gibb into taking on an unexpectedly funky falsetto on Are You Looking For Billy? and Superpower looks at George Michael’s Faith – a reminder that Michael is still the ultimate role model for teen idols who want to appear grown up once the screams stop.

There are detours to electronic dance and pop, while Gone, Gone, Gone opens as an acoustic folk piece and develops into a jingling guitar track.

There’s a clumsy attempt at tackling the household budget crisis in Rio, to which he sings about “trying to survive when the cost of living keeps getting higher.” I’m not sure if his solution – an impromptu trip to Brazil – is an option for most of us.

But Land Of Dreams, with its arena-ready choruses, justifies its decision to go it alone again.

Robbie and Gary may be looking nervously over their shoulders.

The Australian quartet 5 Seconds Of Summer is another boy band experiencing growing pains. After forming in school and posting covers of Justin Bieber on YouTube, their breakthrough came when they toured with One Direction in 2013. They were sharp enough to attract rebellious teenage girls, but healthy enough not to frighten their parents.

As an upbeat pop punk act, they topped the US charts with their first three albums. But you can only get this far with songs that sound like The Inbetweeners set to music, and a more thoughtful approach emerges on their fifth album, 5SOS5, a sprawling 19-track affair largely produced by their guitarist, Michael Clifford.

After once looking at groups like Blink-182 and Green Day, they muted the high-octane riffs in favor of twinkling keyboards and plucked acoustics – an oddly timed move, given the popularity of punky newcomers like Olivia Rodrigo.

Powerballad Complete Mess uses subtle electronics and Older – a piano duet between singer Luke Hemmings and his fiancée Sierra Deaton – is wistful and tender.

There’s a nod to their hometown on Easy For You To Say (“the Sydney sunrise that burns for days”), and some likeable, if formulaic, songs of love and regret. But in the midst of the introspection, they’ve lost a bit of their old dynamism.

Beth Orton was called the queen of “folktronics” when her collaborations with The Chemical Brothers, Andy Weatherall and William Orbit struck a balance between electronic beats and acoustic guitars. Her first two solo albums, Trailer Park and Central Reservation, were worldwide hits and she was crowned Best Woman in the 2000 Brits.

Despite reaching the Top 10 with 2002’s Daybreaker, her career has since stalled. Unable to work in lockdown, she needed a bank loan to continue making music and suffered health problems dating back to a teenage diagnosis of Crohn’s disease digestive disease.

But she wears her heart on her sleeve on her bittersweet seventh album Weather Alive, a series of long, languid pieces written on a “beaten up old piano” she bought in London’s Camden Market. “I’m almost crying, the weather is so beautiful outside,” she sings, breaking her voice, on the title track, setting a dreamlike tone that is held the entire time.

With drummer Tom Skinner and saxophonist Alabaster DePlume adding light and shadow, her hazy arrangements lean towards Joni Mitchell’s jazzier side. Those looking for bangers should look elsewhere, but Weather Alive is beautifully sung and played.

• All albums are out today. Mark Owen embarks on a UK tour at O2 Academy, Bristol (ticketmaster.co.uk) on October 16. Beth Orton kicks off her tour on October 7 at the Academy 2, Birmingham (seetickets.com).