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Rating: Reunions are often, as we know, bizarre and risky commercial stunts or desperate attempts to revive one's career... well, this is exactly the case with Richard Ashcroft and his reformed The Verve.
The English band, which disbanded after the glorious successes of the '90s with albums like "Urban Hymns" and singles that rightfully entered the music Olympus like Bittersweet Symphony, decided to try riding the wave again with this new work "Forth". To be honest, the result is not among the best, barely sufficient and far below expectations.
The album opens with the track Sit and Wonder, certainly the best song with strong reminiscence of early Verve, a strong, energetic piece that brings to mind the devastating Rolling People. Changing track, we move to the first single released Love Is Noise, which, on a radio production level, is booming, but objectively more was expected, a piece indeed for easy-listening radio, accompanied by irritating and endlessly repeated monkey-like sampling sounds: it’s not quite there. We arrive at Rather Be, a song strongly influenced by Ashcroft's solo period, a soul and mind song just as Sir Richie likes it. Subsequently, three tracks line up: Judas, Numbness, and I See Houses, which plunge an album that started decently into the darkest anonymity... unique melancholies excessively long in duration, someone needs to teach Ashcroft that what matters in a song is quality, not quantity...
The whole recovers slightly with the psychedelic and dizzying Noise Epic and the excellent Valium Skies that brings to mind the days when Sonnet and The Drugs Don't Work lightened our days back in '96. The album closes with Columbo (where Ashcroft's solo vein is also strong) and the challenging and solemn Appalachian Springs, perhaps the true gem of the album for true connoisseurs.
In conclusion, it is fair to say that this "Forth" is an album a bit too homogeneous with too few epic moments to highlight for it to be an album of those The Verve everyone knows... or rather knew.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
02 Love Is Noise (05:29)
Will those feet, In modern times
Walk on soles, That are made in China
Feel the bright prosaic malls
In the corridors that go on And on and on
Are we blind, Can we see?
We are one, Incomplete
Are we blind, In the shade
Waiting for lightning, To be saved
Cause Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again,
[Again, Again] [Again, Again]
Will those feet, In modern times
Understand, This world's affliction
Recognize, The righteous anger
Understand, This world's addiction
I was blind, Couldn't see
What was here, In me
I was blind, Insecure
I felt like the road, Was way too long,
Yeah
Cause Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again,
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Feeling Again
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again,
[Again, Again] [Again, Again]
Cause Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Feeling Again
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again,
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Feeling Again
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again,
[Again, Again] [Again, Again]
Will those feet, In modern times
Walk on soles made in China
Will those feet In modern times
See the bright, Prosaic malls?
Will those feet, In modern times
Recognize, The everything up
Will those feet, In modern times
Pardon Me For My Sins
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Feeling Again,
Love Is Noise, And Love Is Pain
Love Is These Blues That I'm Singing Again,
[Again, Again] [Again, Again]
08 Valium Skies (04:34)
Can you keep yourself on for good
Seems like the whole world is losing
How do you stop yourself up
Even if seems like the whole world is crying
Aaaah Oooooh
Aaaah Oooooh
She got all I need
The air I breath
When it comes to my valium skies
She don't mind if I cry
How do you stop your love from crying
Even if you knew she was lying
How do you stop this world from loathing
Still no knocking with all these cards I'm holding
Aaaah Oooooh
Aaaah Oooooh
She got all I need
The air I breath
When it comes to my valium skies
She don't mind if I cry
She don't mind if I cry
She don't mind if I cry
Aaaah Oooooh
Aaaah Oooooh
She got all I need
The air I breath
When it comes to my valium skies
She don't mind if I cry
When it comes to my valium skies
She don't mind if I cry
09 Columbo (07:30)
Baby why are you wasting time crying
Like it's the only thing to do?
Baby don't you worry, you're still crying
Your instincts all it's got, I knew
Baby don't you worry, you're still crying
I can see the sadness in your eye
Baby why are you wasting time crying
Trying to find out the reasons why?
Baby don't believe it when they say it
Love is just a feeling that you give
You're the universe and you're all I need
Tell me all the secrets that I forget
Ooh-yeah-yeah, oooh-yeah-yeah, yeah-yeah
All right, ooh yeah, all right
Just watch the lights go down over this town
Watch it ten feet down, whilst we learn
Watch the city boys leave, full of bluster
Oh where are we now?
Take it easy, for you must keep digging, yourself's only star
We don't know, we don't know (oh yeah)
We don't know, we don't know (oh yeah)
We don't know, we don't know
we don't know, we don't know (a-ha)
Fame, a celebrity cocksuck, flash light, flash light
Fame, bullet proof bathroom
Inside, fixing up
Fame, a sealing-up number one
Vacuum, a vacuum
Fame, miracle accent,
Inside, start it up
Shoot it up, shoot it up, shoot it up, shoot your gun
Fame, the vanity minstrel
Fame, the mirror of the wet dream
And I love you, and I'm feeling that accent
Dying on the inside, I'm dying on the inside
Love's like oxygen
Love's like oxygen
Love's like oxygen
Love's like oxygen
Love's like oxygen
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Other reviews
By Rooftrampler92
The turn is the change, the only way to get out of the city streets to purify the music.
'Love is Noise' is one of the hits of the year, the chorus kills.
By GrantNicholas
"Love is noise/love is pain/love is these blues that I’m singing again,"
"Richard seems rejuvenated by ten years, and he has also gained greater expressive depth in his voice."
By Keith
The album immediately surprises with the band’s state of grace and Ashcroft’s vocal cords which practically do whatever he wants.
'Love Is Noise' already a band classic, catchy and contagious with a chorus that sticks and is supported by an almost three-dimensional production.
By CaptainRock
The title 'Forth' and the cover suggest a celestial record, as if to say 'forward! up in the sky'.
'Numbness' is Verve’s tribute to Pink Floyd featuring a strikingly sharp guitar with a stunning solo.
