You might know Basil Clarke from the ‘80s Manchester group Yargo, most notable for recording the theme to Tony Wilson’s show The Other Side of Midnight. The group featured a mix of reggae, post-punk, and African influences, combined with the smooth soul of Clarke’s vocals. These days, Basil Clarke has dropped the Basil from his performing name, and on The Measure Of My Worth, he’s dropped just about all of the engaging eclectic musical elements to gives us a straight ahead “Quiet Storm” album.

The opening track, “The Anatomy of a Storm,” is promising, with wah wah guitar playing over a descending bass line while Clarke and backup vocalists lay down some interesting harmonies and vocal lines. The groove is laid back, but there was an underlying tension that made me wonder where we’d go from there. Unfortunately, things only get more constrained and boring from there. The music never wavers from this slow contemporary R&B style, and Clarke rarely allows for anything out of the ordinary. “Feeling Good” employs an engaging bass line, brings in a horn line that adds energy, and even has an interesting break with some dub elements, but this song is definitely the exception and not the rule on The Measure Of My Worth. The biggest problem with this album is that if you’re going to release a collection of slow jams and you’re going to play it very straight forward, you better have a damn good voice to draw in your listeners. Clarke doesn’t have a bad voice, but it’s fairly flat and without range, and he doesn’t have much of an ear for melody. To put it bluntly, he’s a boring singer. I keep waiting for something in the music to draw me in, but those moments are few and far between.

There are few things worse than knowing an artist has produced good records in their past and knowing that they are currently making music completely void of what made them special. Clarke stripped himself of the musical influences that made Yargo worth listening to, and unfortunately, he doesn’t have the vocal strength of charisma to pull of a successful album otherwise. The Measure Of My Worth just doesn’t have a lot going for it.