Jesus, what does Green Gartside have to do to make Virgin drop his band? Since 1988's Provision, he's produced precisely five minutes of music - a 1991 duet with Shabba Ranks - yet he and Scritti Politti are still signed to the same label they were with 17 years ago. Either he's an extraordinarily persuasive boardroom negotiator, or Virgin's A&R people are keeping him on for a bet.

After a hiatus of that length, the question is whether one of the 1980s' finest pop craftsmen can still produce the goods. Early impressions are promising. 'Smith 'N' Slappy' and the recent single 'Tinseltown To The Boogiedown' are both fantastic, futuristic swirls of endlessly looped found-sounds all bashed together to create a jerky, angular 'riff', with vocals from two guest rappers, effortlessly verbalising their quick-fire narratives of urban life. It's as if, on these tracks, Green is trying to create a new kind of rap - hip-hop as seen through the eyes of a white aesthete - by juxtaposing his own peculiarly beautiful sonic backdrops with the blacker, 'street' outpourings of the rappers.

The brilliant 'Brushed With Oil, Dusted With Powder', a six-minute crime narrative that starts with "a broken door, a hotel bedroom" and ends in murder, is probably the highlight. With its grandiose flourishes of strings and breathtakingly exquisite orchestral coda, it reminds me of The Blue Nile's similarly gorgeous 'Easter Parade'.

Where A&B flops is in its desire to diversify and branch out, its very eagerness to explore new styles that Green isn't much cop at. Much like Massive Attack's cod rock-isms on Mezzanine, Scritti have tried, on some tracks to blend abrasive guitars with moody atmospherics, and it fails horribly.

'Here Come July', a blur of metal guitar and pounding drums, is the absolute low-point of the man's career. 'Umm' is similarly unsuccessful. After a typically glossy intro fastened down by a mesmeric guitar line, it disintegrates into a dull slab of White Zombie-like rock riffery.

There are still flashes of the old magic - 'Die Alone', with its diagonally descending planes of chiming keyboard, could have come straight from Cupid & Psyche 85, as could the captivating ballad 'First Goodbye' - but they are not numerous enough to make this an outstanding album.