Sleepwalking

Their 1998 debut, Northern Sulphuric Soul, was too clean and too over-produced for some critics' tastes (though not mine), but most saw it as an unimpeachably slinky piece of work.

Sleepwalking, though, is far less immediate than its predecessor. The two tracks featuring Californian rappers The Pharcyde, for instance, seem content to rely on the guest artists' verbal gymnastics in place of a proper melody, while 'Salvation' borrows every clichi in the trip-hop rulebook and comes up with even less than the sum of its parts. Meanwhile, 'Vai Viver @ Vida', a collaboration with Brazilian jazz singer Tania Maria, is too monotonous to work properly.

Sleepwalking has its moments: the delicate acoustic-guitar curlicued riff of 'Get A Life', dovetailed by the gorgeously wracked vocals of Bobby Womack; the Massive Attack-esque urban blues of 'Not Just Anybody'; the lush, undulating surfaces of the edgy instrumental 'Ready To Roll'. Another 20 minutes of this stuff and we'd be laughing. As it is, the record stops frustratingly short of realising its potential.