The Verve - Forth
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Free Music Notes for Forth
Free Music Review: Not Urban Hymns, but still The Verve...
Hit: 4 Stars
Maybe there's one or two tracks that are a little wayward, but by and large this is classic stuff from Richard & Co. The WAY that they craft a song is completely unique, and some of these are real, real gems.Free Music Review: A Great comeback
Hit: 4 Stars
What a great CD! They capture the essence of the old Verve and manage to sound current. One of my fav's that has come out in the last year.Free Music Review: The Verve are back but not better than ever
Hit: 3 Stars
While "Forth" is a welcome return for The Verve, it is probably the least compelling of their four studio albums. And I think the fault lies with Ashcroft, who has once again made The Verve his band.
Four of the songs on this album are credited to Ashcroft alone - "Rather Be," "I See Houses," "Valium Skies," and "Appalachian Springs." One song is credited to Richard Achroft/The Verve - "Love Is Noise," whose origins I suspect are similar to "Bittersweet Symphony" - Ashcroft came up with the basic idea for the song (loop, lyrics) and the band embellished it. These 5 songs are the most poppy songs on the album (and all are ballads except LIN), and songs that would have been on an Ashcroft solo album. So, essentially, these 4 songs are The Verve playing on Ashcroft solo material (like most of Urban Hymns but not as good), and while the songs sound great, so would "Science of Silence" and "Why Not Nothing" if The Verve played on those tracks.
That means that only 6 songs on the album are true collaborative efforts by The Verve. "Sit And Wonder," which I thought was kind of forced on first listen, has grown on me and it is one of the best songs on the album. "Love Is Noise," whose loop was annoying at first though catchy, is actually a very good pop song though lyrically rather daft. "Judas," which is solid musically, features some terrible lyrics about a "latte double shot," which for some reason the band chose to showcase in the CD booklet. "Numbness," while good, is just another rather forgettable mid-tempo song.
This points to the biggest problem with this album - the pacing. Right off the bat we get an almost-7-minute song, and from there just one mid-tempo song after the next, most in the 5-7 minute range. Even Urban Hymns broke up the pacing better than this, and their other 2 albums did as well, with some faster, 3-minute songs ("This Is Music," "Blue"). There are none of those type of songs on "Forth." Which would be fine, if the Verve were really doing something different, but the band is more or less stretching songs out longer than they need to be.
"Noise Epic" is the closest we come to "Rolling People" or "Come On," and it is one of my favorite songs here, and Ashcroft's spoken lyrics are thankfully buried in the mix. What is disappointing is the band never really jams out on the song. I guess the title refers to the constant noise from Ashcroft.
I think the album should have ended with "Valium Skies," because "Columbo" is easily the worst of the band material, a song that goes nowhere. "Appalachian Springs" is another Ashcroft composition that, despite its interesting title, just isn't that great of an album closer, even though McCabe gives us a beautiful guitar coda.
So, in the end, this is a decent reunion album from the boys, but it is Ashcroft that really ruins things. There is no going back to pre-solo Verve, and I think Ashcroft's songwriting skills are permanently damaged. Ashcroft can't seem to write any interesting lyrics - the best here are just okay, nothing memorable. It is as if he can't really write any really dark lyrics anymore, but tries to do so out of sheer habit, giving us watered-down stuff from the "life gets you down"/"tasting tears"/"i'm here for you" school of songwriting. His vocals are strong throughout, but he is always there in front, rarely giving the band a chance to really play.
I saw the Verve in NYC in April, and it's the band I really like - McCabe, Jones, and Salisbury. They really rocked at some points. And they do it on "Forth" too, but not often enough. I'll grant that the album sounds great - possibly their best produced album.
Another thought: If this didn't have "The Verve" name on it, I doubt "Forth" would garner any press or good reviews at all. I rarely respect this argument about other albums, but here it seems obvious considering the album's mediocrity and musical anachronism.
Free Music Review: Utterly Mediocre
Hit: 3 Stars
I have always loved The Verve. They're one of my all-time top 3 favorite bands. I've heard everything of theirs that I could get my hands on over the past 15 years or so. On their earliest singles, their The Verve EP, No Come Down, A Storm in Heaven, and A Northern Soul, The Verve are the perfect blend of heavy-mellow beauty with just the right amount of danger. On epic tracks like "Feel" they could simultaneously lull you into bliss and scare you into a cold sweat. To me The Verve was one of the best bands America ever almost missed. By the time Urban Hymns came out The Verve was so big in Europe that radio stations here had to pay attention. I've warmed up to Bittersweet Symphony over the years but Urban Hymns was an over-all let down for me. The Verve was a great band when they wrote songs together as a band. They were great when Nick McCabe played his Les Paul turned up super-loud with deep, smooth distortion. Live, he would effect a single note into a swirling wall of sound that only he could create, Ashcroft's improv crooning in the background the perfect, eerie accompaniment. But since the songs "History" and "In On Your Own" found their way onto A Northern Soul, we were doomed to lose the band The Verve in favor of Richard Ashcroft's solo project- The Verve. Some of the material on Forth starts to ring of classic Verve but it is all lost in the generic, homogenized mixing. McCabe's elegant, experimental guitar minimalism is here, in places, but it's usually buried in the background with the bass and drums. What's always right up front on Forth though is Richard Ashcroft's vocals, which have improved over the years. But what the Verve gained in handing over the reigns to Ashcroft they lost in dark, groovy, drug-addled psychedelicism- something that always made The Verve The Verve. Forth is not an extenuation of A Northern Soul, their last great album. Instead it is an underwhelmingly mediocre extension of Ashcroft's latest solo efforts. Thanks for another album, guys but at least call it "Richard Ashcroft and The Verve."Free Music Review: Forgivably familiar
Hit: 3 Stars
While not as well-known to us Yanks as other Brits, The Verve has been churning out dreamy soundscapes since'89. Fronted by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft and driven by guitarist Nick McCabe, the quartet has cultivated a reputation for embracing experimentation, both musically and pharmaceutically. The latter led to a collection of break-ups and personnel shifts, solo projects and strained reunions. This, the third act in the drama-Verve, ushers in the first new material from the original lineup since `97's critical and commercial success, Urban Hymns.
While the often-times adversarial relationship between Ashcroft and McCabe, along with the requisite drug abuse and break-ups, could be easily passed off as rock & roll cliché, The Verve, however, should not. Ashcroft, assertively sporting a self-assigned personality cult, has absorbed a fair amount of lashing from fans and critics alike for being a right prat, while drawing equal amounts of credit and admiration from the very same crowd. McCabe, if given a free pass for his penchant to ingest any volume of mind-altering chemicals, could easily be regarded as the most talented and innovative guitarist to emerge since The Edge. This mix has produced sublime results over the years.
Forth, their newest offering in more than a decade, sees The Verve not reinventing their formula, but revisiting it. Ashcroft's solo stint may have enjoyed the loyalty of Verve fans and critics past, but clearly lacked the impact of McCabe's remarkable gifts. Forth shines a light on each artist's compliment to the other; one's munchies to the other's spliff, if you will. They may get on like cats in a sack at times, but the results can be magnificent. Forth hardly qualifies as their best work, but is certainly emblematic of both their group dynamic and their collective talent as an outfit. At their best, they are brilliant; at their worst, they're still better than most.
Bottom line: if you're a fan, you'll buy it anyhow. If not, start from the first release and work your way through. It's quite a trip.