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Rating: 9/11 and 7/7, Youtube and MySpace, the rise of Coldplay and that of the Arctic Monkeys, the arrival of George W. Bush and the end of Tony Blair, the disappearance of Britpop and the advent of Hip-Hop, mp3 and digital, iTunes and the end of the album as such, "American Idol" and various useless things: in the last eleven years of the Verve's absence from the scene, all this and much more has happened, and it is impossible not to take it into account after hearing of their incredible comeback.
Thus comes out the comeback album, "Forth", a product that, first of all, starts with a wordplay as a title: "Forth" at a first glance makes one think of "Fourth" (i.e., the band's fourth studio work), and instead stands for "Forth" (meaning "forward"), almost a warning launched from the cover by Richard Ashcroft and co. Over a decade after the masterpiece "Urban Hymns" (released on September 29th, 1997, and capable of selling 500,000 copies in Italy alone), the unexpected success of songs like "Bittersweet Symphony", "The Drugs Don't Work" and the breakup in April 1999, here are the four back on stage with an album that has been deeply discussed and scrutinized by both the public and critics. The classic lineup, the one that formed in Wigan in 1989, with Ashcroft on vocals, Nick McCabe on guitar, Simon Jones on bass, and Peter Salisbury on drums, and ten songs for a very long album (65 minutes) that immediately surprises with the band's state of grace and Ashcroft's vocal cords which practically do whatever he wants, becoming Marvin Gaye and Liam Gallagher, soaring into falsetto and descending into baritone.
Epic opening with "Sit And Wonder", more than a song a statement of intent, a sumptuous piece suspended on a carpet of guitars and percussion with Ashcroft repeating "Sit And Wonder" at the start of each verse before entering a chorus that keeps the piece dark and low as if behind the singer's vocal cords were Massive Attack rather than the Verve, while at the end of the track comes a solo where McCabe sounds like David Gilmour's brother. Then comes the single, "Love Is Noise", already a band classic, catchy and contagious with a chorus that sticks and is supported by an almost three-dimensional production, with an obsessive loop that makes it a rave pop piece. "Rather Be" starts with a majestic piano before adding the other instruments, although the focal point of the track remains Ashcroft's voice as in the subsequent "Judas", perhaps the masterpiece of the album: six minutes of soul that seem crafted in Manchester, as if Marvin Gaye had been born white and a worker in Thatcher's 80s. "I See Houses" which sounds like a "Lucky Man" 2.0 version, piano and electronics on two different tracks that then converge into a decidedly "Vervian" chorus.
The album unwinds between claustrophobic electronics shifted to twang guitars ("Numbness"), beats over which Ashcroft practically does spoken word ("Noise Epic", 8 minutes and 17) and decidedly atypical country ballads ("Appalachian Springs"), to complete a lengthy and complex work that takes its time and where you can feel a band in tremendous form that did everything as they wanted and waited for the right moment to do it, tying to the real protagonist of "Forth", Richard Ashcroft, who after the great scare of finding an anomaly in his lungs and the consequent decision to quit smoking (it was two packs a day) looked back, called back his old friends, and understood it was a shame to throw away such a glorious past. To do so, he built a bright present starting from an album that in the end-of-year merit charts will surely end up ahead of the Coldplay's work.
Tracklist:
Sit And Wonder
Love Is Noise
Rather Be
Judas
Numbness
I See Houses
Noise Epic
Valium Skies
Columbo
Appalachian Springs
Regards.
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 Doherty
The album opens with the track Sit and Wonder, certainly the best song with strong reminiscence of early Verve.
'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.
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.
