JOHNNY Cash, Neil Diamond, even Tony Christie - it seems the list of “past it” performers rejuvenated by a timely collaboration with the right songwriter or producer is growing quickly.

Sadly, Tom Jones won’t be joining their ranks.

24 Hours could have been Jones’ Home Before Dark, but rather than taking the pared-down approach now beloved of his contemporaries, the 68-year old is as unapologetically bombastic as ever.

His refusal to bow to fashion is admirable but let’s face it, no-one wants to hear about pensioners eyeing up the girls by the pool, and the sex noises over the beginning of Seen That Face just seem undignified.

Much has been made of Jones’ first love song to his wife, The Road, but if Mrs Jones accepts the syrupy ballad as an apology for a lifetime of philandering then she needs some serious lessons in self respect.

A cover of Bruce Springsteen’s The Hitter is promising, but with Jones seeminly determined to “deliver” the lines rather than just singing them, it too becomes sucked into the morass of overblown pomp.

Jones seems determined to grow old disgracefully. Sadly his maturing years aren’t reflected in the quality of his music.

24 Hours is released on November 17.