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2003's Farewell Sorrow may be the release of the decade so far. An extraordinary record building on the worthy legacy of its predecessors, the three Appendix Out records and The Crook of My Arm, Roberts' debut solo CD, transporting traditional folk structures into the 21st Century without resorting to the employment of 21st Century gimmick.

I feared any follow-up may prove difficult, and my reaction to No Earthly Man is that this is something the artist may, himself, have feared. "Sweet William" apart (which is a wonderful tune and story and arrives like a shower of feathers compared with the leaden clogs of preceding tracks) No Earthly Man is unfortunately a turgid, plodding series of "death ballads," lacking the urgency and grime and pathos required of the genre and which is destined to try the patience of any listener. To place the 8 minute "Lord Ronald," essentially the aural equivalent of a tortoises-in-treacle 100 metre sprint, as the introductory track could be described as brave, but the foolish nature of this decision is only spared fatal suicide status by the ease of use of the skip track facility on the remote control.

Equally foolish is to step into Shirley Collins' terrain with a tepid version of "Cruel Mother", which I hope will not deter any unfamiliar listener from exploring the works of that most mighty of the English folk goddesses of the '60s. (If you are unfamiliar, please do explore - you will not be disappointed.)

A project such as No Earthly Man should have been tackled with a degree of passion and empathy that Roberts' voice just simply does not have. It's "feebleness" may be the perfect accompaniment to many of his previous outings ("Many-Legged Boatmen" from Appendix Out's The Rye Bears The Poison or the title track from Farewell Sorrow), but it does not work here; Alasdair merely sounds lost and exposed (yet is in no hurry to escape this predicament).

I will put No Earthly Man down as a failed experiment, yet it remains a bitter disappointment following the excellence of the first two solo Roberts and the Appendix Out releases.

Alasdair Roberts at Amazon & Insound