Dave Stewart/Barbara Gaskin - Green and Blue

There comes an awkward point in the interaction between any musical artist and myself when I find that I don't like the latest offering/creation of the artist.

The first time that this happened was in 1973, when Peter Hammill released "Chameleon in the shadow of the night". Until then, Peter and Van der Graaf could do no wrong, although I admit there were parts of 'Lighthouse keepers' which were on the edge. "Chameleon" was a slap in the face, a complete change of style, and it took me both by surprise and by undelight. At the time, I was in correspondence with Mr Hammill, and it took all the courage I could muster to say that I didn't like the album. When pressed, I said that it was too empty, and Peter wrote back saying that's what he was capable of now, it's no longer a band but me solo. In time, I began to appreciate and cherish the album, but again Mr Hammill and I parted company a few years later, around the time of "pH7". The songs simply did not interest me. In fact, although I've bought a few solo albums since that time, as well as the two new Van der Graaf disks, nothing has caught my fancy very much.

I've written previously about how Jackson Browne fell out of favour, primarily by staying the same, by not increasing his harmonic vocabulary and by writing songs that didn't interest me. Or maybe it was me that was changing.

The great Richard Thompson is also facing decreased purchases by me, although maybe I am being unfair to him in that his material is taking longer and longer to sink in. Randy Newman hasn't passed the watermark yet, although I had my doubts about "Bad Love" and "Faust". Kate Bush after "The hounds of love" also falls into this category, although I hadn't been totally gung-ho about all her previous output either.

And now we come to Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin. Dave was the organist in "Hatfield and the North", "National Health" and "Bruford", groups who produced albums which occupied a lot of my listening time from 1975 onwards. After the dissolution of "Bruford" in around 1981, Dave turned his attention to making intelligent pop singles (is that an oxymoron?) but still managed to disappear off the radio. Barbara was one of the three Northettes who contributed eerie vocals to the Hatfield canon, and then apparently linked up with Dave in real life.

Their 1991 album, "Spin", was like a breath of fresh air, with intelligent music and witty lyrics. Certainly not Hafield or National Health in terms of song length or construction, but definitely there was a continuing line. Since then, it's been a long wait until their new, hot off the press, "Green and blue" disk which arrived last week.

Why did I start off by writing about the awkward point when an artist whose previous work I have loved creates something which leaves me cold? Because G+B leaves me extremely cold. Let's look at "Spin" again for a moment: it's possible to say that the songs on this disk fall into one of three categories: covers, witty uptempo songs, and slow dirges. Generally speaking, I liked the covers (especially "Eight miles high"), loved the uptempo songs (especially the song about the 60s) and tolerated the dirges. This might have something to do with Barbara's voice, which tends to be non-descript. Anyway, G+B is composed almost entirely of slow dirges, and at the moment the best track on G+B is about as good as the worst track on "Spin".

I can't really name any names or give any examples because it all sounds near enough the same to me, and nothing has impressed. I will listen and listen again, but I have the feeling that this one is a dud - or to be more polite and probably more correct, my vision and their vision have parted company.