It's been said to death that Cliff Martin is the Pluto whose creative powers aged the worst. "Mind the Gap" vindicates this assertion, unfortunately.

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There is no syncopation to speak of, the melody is boring, the chords are only unpredictable to the slightest degree, and dash it if the man himself simply sounds like he doesn't want to be there.

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Martin seems to be completely at the end of his rope. Maybe the stress of the breakup was getting to him. But we've seen other great artists form some of their best work under duress. I suppose Martin just didn't have that ability.

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The reasons why have ranged from conspiracies such as "he was developing throat cancer", to ad hominems like "he was too spoiled to care anymore", to finally "he had mentally checked out because he was saving his best work for his solo career." The last of these seems the most plausible to me, but this list of three is by no means an exhaustive list.

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The carnival-esque feel to the song, aided by the harmonium lines, lumbering triplets, and organs, are the only thing that give the song any sense of life. Can you imagine how much of a disaster this track would be if it was written alongside a standard guitar-bass-drum accompaniment?

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Oh, wait...I'm describing the outro.

Apparently unsatisfied with torturing listeners for a minute and a half, Martin appended the "time is such a drag" section, which is both repetitive and only slightly better than the first half of the song. Why? To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure. The three-part Martin harmonies sound more like his standard emotive fare, and not like he is half asleep.

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But is it enough to save the song? Hardly.

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★☆☆☆☆