Human

You can never take away from Clegg his brave role as a white Jewish musician in apartheid South Africa, fronting Juluka and Savuka, the country’s first racially-mixed bands. But that was over 30 years ago. Listening to Clegg’s latest release, it’s hard to escape the feeling that he has been left far behind – by the success of the ‘Rainbow Nation’ and, more simply, by musical fashion. There are several tracks on Human which throb with a pleasing Zulu rhythm, ‘Asilazi’ and ‘Magumede’ among them. Sadly, though, many of the tracks sound like outtakes from an REM or U2 release – and not even a recent one, at that, but something they cast aside as not quite good enough in the 80s. Clegg’s heart remains politically in the right place, on songs such as ‘Love in the Time of Gaza’ and ‘Hidden Away Down’ (inspired by the death of senator Edward Kennedy). There are some fine love songs, too, particularly All I Got is You, But this is a record by an admirable musician who sounds like time has left him marooned.