ONE DROP IN A DRY WORLD

Woolly Wolstenholme's mellotron, bombastic songwriting and arranging, and brooding vocals all elevated all BJH albums in which he took part, and the drop off in their quality after 1979's XII was not simpy due to a change of decade. His loss was a major blow to any of the band's pretentions at seriousness, and it was shocking that he only released one album after the breakup before disappearing for a quarter century.

"One drop in a Dry World" has echoes of the old BJH, but yet somehow so much is missing. The sharp melodic touch for one thing. The harmonies for another. John Lees' subtle guitar work. I just don't know. Even some of the best material is not particularly redolent of BJH, such as the powerful "Souk" and "End of the Road". But "A Waiting Game" is a pretty Christmassy type song and "It's You" really does take you back to those early singles on the Harvest label. It's the attempt to re-capture the old epic mood that seems so half-hearted, and fails badly, in the title track and the boring "Blood and Bones", both of which seem to be intended as centerpieces of the album. Even in Woolly's most grandiose pieces like "Moonwater" and "Ra", he never sounded trite like this. Just throwing a mellotron at something like "It's 2 AM" is not sufficient to bolster the mediocre material. "The Starving People..." is actually a novel approach but, like many novelties, only good for one or two listens.

As it turns out, "One Drop" is little more than that. I have heard good things about his other material, but will tread cautiously going forward.