Earlier this year, The Jazz Butcher discreetly slipped out an LP under the name The Black Eg. Stuffed with off-kilter humour, it's a far cry from the downbeat and desolate self-therapy of Condition Blue.

Here, Butchie tears himself to shreds, giving his heart a good kicking in the process. The brooding opens with Girls Say Yes a sad, delicate lament that's cut from the same sorry cloth as Harlan and the overlong Racheland. There's still some light with the shade though; the upbeat She's A Yo Yo and Shirley Maclaine suggest he hasn't lost it totally.

"I've been bouncing of the wall, cos that's all I've got to work with," he confesses. Know the feeling.