I'm not sure if it's the extra work load or the diverse nature of the two bands that Lowery fronts, but Greenland is a major disappointment. There seems to be a lack of editing, the CD clocking in at over 60 minutes. It should be shorter than that - much shorter. Many of the songs are nowhere near the band's usual high standard. There are country songs and rock songs, but the winning blend of both together is conspicuous by its absence.

The rock songs are hackneyed and cliché ridden; something that Lowery has always been adept at avoiding in the past. The heavy handed ghost of Led Zeppelin stalks the tracks, too many are heavy on bombast and bludgeoning riffs. They are short on subtle touches or the keen sense of melody that marked out Zeppelin's high points. Gimme One More Chance is constructed around a dumb and sterile riff, and with its vaguely sexist lyrics I wondered if the whole thing was a piss-take, twisting the clichés of 70s hard rock inside out in the style of Jim O'Rourke's Insignificance. Unfortunately the inclusion of too many tracks in a similar vein leaves me with the impression that Cracker are playing it straight.

Minotaur almost defies belief that it has come from the same writer capable of something as great as Low. The riff is recycled from Gimme One More Chance, the drums thump hard and the bass is on the money, but the result is duller than a networking meeting of accountants and librarians. There appears to be the scent of self indulgence in the air. The opening 70 seconds of Sidi Infni is a lesson in how not to let your guitarist call the shoots: the spiralling bluesy licks allow Johnny Hickman to show off but add nothing to the song. It's pure musical masturbation and not something I thought I'd ever hear on a Cracker record.

To make this kind of plundering work you need to have the youthful vigour of someone like Wolfmother or Jet. These exercises in rocking out sound tired and worn out, like a wedding band forced to learn hard rock covers. About as convincing as an apology from a cheating politian.

The LP is redeemed a little by the countrified numbers: the opening Something You Ain't Got, with its blend of piano, pedal steel and fuzzy guitars, is a whip smart, and with its tale of heartbreak, drinking and loneliness it has the heart that the heavier tracks seem to have mislaid. The tremolo organ and crunchy guitars of Maggie are off set by a wonderfully half awake vocal. The jaunty rhythm of I Need Better Friends is a relief after the turgid Sidi Infni. It's not that far removed from the sound of Frank Black's Honeycomb LP from last year.

As a whole the record that has left me dazed and bemused. The unfocused nature of Greenland makes it sound like the work of two different bands.Cutting out the stupid rock stuff there is the basis of a solid LP - shame that sometimes boys just want rock out.

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Mercury Prize 2009 nominees