Terence Trent Introducing

Terence Trent D'Arby had a difficult 1990s, the nadir of which was probably the desperate mating call Supermodel Sandwich with Cheese from his 1995 album Vibrator. But he has started the new century with a clean slate, changing his name to Sananda Maitreya and launching his own label. The artful blend of soul, rock and funk is reassuringly familiar, though. D'Arby/ Maitreya still exercises a Prince-like control over songwriting, arrangement and production, rendering it a one-man show, but that's no bad thing with an artist of his ability. Drivin' Me Crazy packs enough lust into three funky minutes to satiate his most ardent fans (or "lightbeings", as he calls them), and the outstanding Suga Free pairs dark balladry with an operatic choir. Even the banjo-plinking O Divina comes good in the end, swelling into a Motownesque chorus. A snazzy comeback.

Falling halfway between the modern R&B of Introducing the Hardline and the extravagant Neither Fish nor Flesh, Symphony or Damn is Terence Trent D'Arby's most ambitious album yet. It's also his best, because it takes the fine songwriting of his debut and melds it to the sonic excesses of Fish. Sure, some of it is embarrassing (it's hard not to cringe during the "Welcome to My Monasteryo" declaration at the beginning of the album), but more often than not, D'Arby's experimentations succeed, and succeed grandly, at that.